Cone Health MedCenter Greensboro At Drawbridge Parkway, Greensboro, North Carolina: Photo Tour
©Albert Vecerka/Esto
Cone Health MedCenter Greensboro At Drawbridge Parkway: The entrance to the emergency department welcomes patients and visitors with a large canopy and is distinct from the main entrance to the building both through design and a grade change. Located on the lowest level, and facing a different direction, the ED entrance is thoughtfully positioned as to allow for discrete access, complete with its own surface parking area. Once inside connections to the larger building are made via stairs and elevator.
©Albert Vecerka/Esto
Cone Health MedCenter Greensboro At Drawbridge Parkway: The main entrance welcomes you with a light and airy drop-off canopy sheltering your path directly into the building. The most prominent feature of this project is referred to as the “porch.” This element is meant to create a welcoming experience but also provides shade to the fitness area as well as the infusion center. From the porch, a series of terraces spill down creating a gentle transition to the road below and to the Bicentennial Greenway trail. The parking structure is located adjacent the front door and is connected to the building internally at three locations for convenience.
©Albert Vecerka/Esto
Cone Health MedCenter Greensboro At Drawbridge Parkway: Inspired by the informal essence of historic café culture, Café Drawbridge will create a space of both communal engagement and individual reflection around the services. The café features tables to accommodate group interaction, as well as comfortable plush chairs.
©Albert Vecerka/Esto
Cone Health MedCenter Greensboro At Drawbridge Parkway: When the weather is cooperating, visitors can go between inside and outside through any number of doors. This exterior space can function as an impromptu meeting area, a quiet meditation zone, or even an area for outside lectures, concerts, or movie screenings. The location of the courtyard, between the building and a rising, wooded hill at back of the site, allows it to be a sort of internalized and quiet exterior space not exposed to the sound of traffic on the nearby roads and highway.
©Albert Vecerka/Esto
Cone Health MedCenter Greensboro At Drawbridge Parkway: Materials utilized on the exterior of the MedCenter were selected for durability, ease of maintenance, and elegance. The materials are meant to evoke memories of materials commonly found in the Greensboro area such as brick, stone, and wood. Along with these more traditional materials, newer materials are introduced such as fritted glass, aluminum panels, perforated metal, and exposed structural steel, to project the forward-looking and innovative approach to health and wellness MedCenter Greensboro aims to achieve.
©Albert Vecerka/Esto
Cone Health MedCenter Greensboro At Drawbridge Parkway: With large windows looking to a dense, wooded area, the aquatic center is surrounded by nature and bathed in natural daylight. This natatorium, comprised of a lap pool, a therapy pool, and a whirlpool, provides an opportunity for users to receive therapy or simply exercise, all easily accessible on the first floor. The addition of this program to the project, helps create a well-rounded approach to wellness.
©Albert Vecerka/Esto
Cone Health MedCenter Greensboro At Drawbridge Parkway: At the main lobby, one is welcomed with warm materials and a calming color palette of beige, tan, and cream tones. At this first touchpoint, the design team focused on creating an easy-to-navigate hub. Anchored to the reception desk, one notices a tall, abstracted tree, an allusion to stability, strength, and nature. From the lobby one can easily access many unique programs including, the fitness area, facilitated play, the aquatics center, and the community rooms. The smart bar, just beyond reception, is designed as a place where visitors can ask questions, receive guidance, or simply hang out in an informal setting.
©Albert Vecerka/Esto
Cone Health MedCenter Greensboro At Drawbridge Parkway: Just as it is prominent on the exterior of the building the fitness area is also one of the prominent elements first visible upon arriving at the lobby. Immediately adjacent to the fitness center, a series of active spaces continue to wrap the remaining exterior walls.
©Albert Vecerka/Esto
Cone Health MedCenter Greensboro At Drawbridge Parkway: Facilitated play, found on the first floor, is a space for children to exercise and hone movement skills, in addition to serving as a baby-sitting area for busy parents. The program holds classes in two skill-based categories, but also let children play in a supervised setting. The goal of this space is for children to develop skills in socializing, healthy eating, exercise, and wellbeing.
©Albert Vecerka/Esto
Cone Health MedCenter Greensboro At Drawbridge Parkway: An important component of this project is the Cancer Center, which provides services within an oncology clinic and infusion center. The infusion bays are positioned high above the landscape to allow patients with views out to the landscape while they receive treatment. Floor-to-ceiling glazing allows for generous views to the outdoors under the shade provided by the porch canopy.
©Albert Vecerka/Esto
Cone Health MedCenter Greensboro At Drawbridge Parkway: The gymnasium is located on the main floor and is accessed through the fitness area. This space is designed to be flexible to accommodate a variety of indoor sports, such as basketball, volleyball, and pickleball. The clerestory windows found throughout the perimeter are meant to bring in some daylight into the space without creating too much glare for the those inside.
©Albert Vecerka/Esto
Cone Health MedCenter Greensboro At Drawbridge Parkway: The patient lobbies are equipped with plenty of space and seating arrangement opportunities, from more private areas to open ones. Each level is designed with a unique family of colors for ease of wayfinding. They are directly connected to the main elevators and are also provided with generous daylight. These lobbies also connect with the parking garage to provide convenience and a sheltered path from car to building.
©Albert Vecerka/Esto
Cone Health MedCenter Greensboro At Drawbridge Parkway: Physical Therapy is found directly adjacent to the fitness area. It is located in a one-story volume (beneath the free weights area) and behind an open stair. Its positioning is intentional in that it provides an open area where visitors can receive therapy in a semi-retreated zone while still feeling connected to the larger fitness area. The open floor plan allows for equipment, weights, and therapy devices to be freely arranged depending on the session that day.
Cone Health MedCenter Greensboro At Drawbridge Parkway, Greensboro, North Carolina
Owner Cone Health (Greensboro, N.C.), a nonprofit healthcare delivery system, set out to connect and integrate healthcare and well-being services all in one location with the creation of the MedCenter Greensboro at Drawbridge Parkway northwest Greensboro, N.C.
Opened in December 2021, the 200,000-square-foot clinic and freestanding emergency center introduces wellness components throughout this project by establishing community spaces to engage and teach healthy habits.
Spaces are thoughtfully designed to support teaching healthy eating and cooking, exercising, and mindful movements, in addition to the services traditionally offered in a clinic and freestanding emergency center.
The facility includes primary care, behavioral health, counseling, a cancer center, women’s healthcare, emergency care, heart and vascular care, imaging, orthopedics outpatient rehabilitation, sports medicine, and plastic surgery services. A café, retail pharmacy, Sagewell Health & Fitness, and a teaching kitchen are also included.
Wellness built into the design
Wellness is provided within a unique environment within this facility, both indoors and outdoors. Programs hosted within studio classrooms for teaching of fitness and rehabilitation, to a basketball gymnasium and full aquatics program are included to augment this community-based facility.
The most prominent feature on the exterior, the “front porch,” is meant to represent a front porch of a home, an architectural reference to community, conversation, and shelter. The porch becomes the backdrop for the fitness space with an indoor running track that allows views both into and from the facility. Fitness space is created within the first floor and activated through the connecting outdoor patio spaces for group activities.
The four-story environmentally conscious facility includes a mezzanine level within the fitness/ rehabilitation center. The building’s orientation was carefully positioned to minimize heat gain while also introducing sunshade devices to block out the harshest sunlight, but still allowing views to the outdoors.
Several features were implemented within the project and sited to be enhanced by the outdoors, such as the community rooms facing the courtyard, the swimming pools with large windows facing the wooded landscape, and the fitness area with views across the terraces and trees beyond.
Campus connection to the Greensboro community
The campus is woven into the greater Greensboro community as a destination site with direct connection to the Bicentennial Greenway, a multiuse regional trail that runs through several counties in North Carolina which residents can use for recreation or alternative forms of transportation.
Maximizing the site usage, Cone Health chose to develop an integrated parking facility attached directly to the facility. This affords more site area to be fully developed for outdoor activities and garden spaces while allowing direct and protected connection for patrons with exceptionally short travel distances and easy accessibility to the building amenities.
Cone Health MedCenter Greensboro at Drawbridge Parkway project details
Location: Greensboro, N.C.
Completion date: December 2021
Owner: Cone Health
Total building area: 202,438 sq. ft.
Total construction cost: N/A
Cost/sq. ft.: N/A
Architecture firm: Page Southerland Page Inc. (design architect), Odell (architect of record)
Interior design: (contracted by owner)
General contractor: Brasfield & Gorrie
Engineering: Affiliated Engineers (MEP), Fitzpatrick Engineering (structural engineer), Adams Electric Company (electrical engineer), McKenney’s Mechanical (mechanical), Stimmel (civil/land planning) WTI (aquatics), Covalus (medical equipment planning)
Builder: Brasfield & Gorrie
