It wasn’t that long ago that green design—applied and accepted on a widespread scale—was the next big thing. And it wasn’t long after that that the term “greenwashing” entered the lexicon, as companies offered up vague claims of green/sustainable/energy-conserving benefits, hoping to jump on the Earth-friendly bandwagon without addressing the pesky question of proof.
Castle Rock Adventist Hospital opened in August 2013 in Castle Rock, Colo., and was designed and built by Orlando, Fla.-based HuntonBrady Architects. Hospital leaders applied their faith-based mission to features such as a large community garden, a locavore-driven restaurant, an outdoor demonstration kitchen, environmentally friendly and sustainable architecture, and a hospital planned around evidence-based design principles to positively impact the healing environment.
Healthcare Design has a number of sister publications, all healthcare related, covering everything from clinical research and practices to the exploding market of healthcare information technology. Since healthcare is at the core of them all, there are common threads that run through our coverage.
In March 2013, Lourdes Health System opened LourdesCare (Cherry Hill, N.J.), a 55,000-square-foot state-of-the-art ambulatory care center. Lourdes Health System worked with Environetics (Philadelphia), an architecture, interior design, and engineer firm, to convert a vacant supermarket into a facility that would allow the organization to provide more affordable and accessible health services.
“We are all children in the face of illness—scared, ignorant, and impulsive—and we should be treated as such.”
The design of any healthcare space is an intricate process with hundreds of variables. But when the space is a hybrid OR, the complexity level reaches new—and precisely calibrated—heights. This was especially true in the case of Akron General Medical Center’s (Akron, Ohio) new integrated operating room and diagnostics services suite.
On a ridiculously beautiful day in our nation’s capital—seriously, 75 degree sunshine in August: Obscene!—a group of appointed representatives convened to give their full attention to 100-plus documents, each of which purported to enlighten and educate the masses for the betterment of society.
Ah, democracy in action.
I was in Dallas last week for the Healthcare Design Academy, where a team of highly invested players working on the replacement facility for Parkland Memorial Hospital gave an in-depth presentation on the project’s progress.
The 184,600-square-foot new Louis & Peaches Owen Heart Hospital includes 72 new private patient rooms; a cardiac intensive care unit; cardiac surgical suites; and comprehensive cardiac, thoracic, vascular and pulmonary services—as well as state-of-the-art equipment and integrated electronic health records. A new imaging center acts as a connecting element between the existing hospital and new space.
The $51 million Jump Trading Simulation and Education Center at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center is part of an ongoing collaboration between OSF Healthcare and the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria (UICOMP), brought about by a donation of $25 million to the two institutions from Jump Trading.
My sister-in-law is a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) nurse, and whenever she talks about her job, her patients, and the families she serves every day, I’m always filled with the same combination of dread/awe that’s probably hard-wired once you become a parent. NICU spaces are so specialized, so unique in what they do. While the importance of involving the family in patient care is recognized across all healthcare disciplines, in the NICU, it’s practically a requirement.
The Steven & Alexandra Cohen Children’s Medical Center of New York recently opened a new $120 million, 130,000-square-foot pavilion. Designed by MorrisSwitzer Environments for Health (Boston), the six-story addition provides an opportunity to expand and enhance programmatic areas, while adding space for current demands.
