Anne DiNardo

Project source list:

Completion date: December 2013

Owner: Health and Hospital Corp. of Marion County, parent company of Eskenazi Health

Total building area: 882,346 SF (hospital); 198,435 SF (ambulatory care building); 12,600 SF (central utility plant); 23,300 SF (central boiler plant); 300,000 SF (faculty office building)

Total construction cost: $593 million

Architecture: HOK (executive architect), Ratio, BSA LifeStructures, Blackburn Associates, A2S04, Synthesis, DSR

Interior design: HOK, Maregatti Interiors

Eskenazi Health employs a range of strategies at the Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital to connect to nature and encourage healthy lifestyles, from its calming interior that incorporates plentiful daylighting to the outdoor spaces that can be viewed from numerous locations on the campus. But it was during a planning meeting with one of the landscape architects when the project’s most profound concept was born: a rooftop farm.

Indianapolis’ public safety-net hospital has gone through multiple name changes—starting as City Hospital in 1859 and changing to Indianapolis General and Wishard Memorial before becoming Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital in 2013. But during all those years—and name changes—it’s held a strong commitment to artwork in the healing environment.

Public safety-net hospitals are used to focusing on the needs of their communities, bringing a range of services to a diverse patient population. However, five years ago, Wishard Memorial Hospital found itself turning to its Indianapolis community for help.