PHOTO TOUR: Northwest Health – La Porte
Chad Baumer
To keep construction on schedule during the harsh winter months, the design team used prefabricated wall panels on the exterior of the building, which allowed for repetitive elements in the façade design.
Chad Baumer
High-performance, low-emittance glass improves the building’s energy efficiency without compromising the amount of ambient light.
Chad Baumer
Inside the two-story lobby, large windows maximize views of the surrounding area and flood the space with natural light. Patient destinations, such as elevator lobbies, registration areas, and seating spaces, are highlighted with decorative materials, lighting, and artwork.
Chad Baumer
The design team relocated decorative stained-glass panels from the old hospital to an accent wall behind the main lobby’s monumental stair.
Chad Baumer
Separate seating areas in the second-level waiting area promote patient privacy, while a check-in portal minimizes patient stress.
Chad Baumer
Both horizontal and vertical public circulation is completely separate from staff horizontal and vertical circulation, which reduces travel distances and increases efficiencies.
Chad Baumer
Each floor has multiple centralized nurses’ stations, with direct visibility into patient rooms. The intensive care unit also features separate observation stations directly outside patient rooms for closer monitoring.
Chad Baumer
The hospital’s birthing and family care center features 10 spacious, hotel-like suites, as well as two suites with whirlpool tubs for water labor. Each room features hardwood-like floors, private bathroom, and foldout couch.
Chad Baumer
The emergency department features multifunctional exam rooms, a centrally located nurses’ station with 360-degree visibility, private elevator to the second and third floors, and helipad.
Chad Baumer
The hospital’s 84 private inpatient rooms include a private bathroom, flat-screen TV, room-by-room temperature control and a recliner, as well as electronic information boards that display patients’ medical information and care plans.
After joining Community Health Systems’ (CHS; Franklin, Tenn.) regional Northwest Health network, La Porte Hospital received funding to replace its outdated, undersized, and operationally inefficient facility. CHS wanted the new facility to align stylistically with the color palette, materials, and form of other facilities within its network while also providing an updated, modern tone. The new hospital’s exterior and interior palettes will serve as the basis of design for the health system’s future projects.
The four-story Northwest Health – La Porte’s clean, modern façade does just that by marrying traditional brick with modern metal panels and large expanses of glass.
Inside, the two-story lobby features decorative stained-glass panels that the design team relocated from the former facility for an accent wall behind the monumental stair, which leads to a shared waiting room on the second floor and registration areas. Large windows stacked in the corner of the elevator lobbies and waiting rooms maximize views of the surrounding area and orient visitors back toward the city.
The $88 million project houses 84 private inpatient rooms. To improve care efficiencies, each floor has multiple nurses’ stations as well as separate observation stations outside patient rooms in the intensive care unit (ICU). The hospital also features separate circulation for staff; dedicated elevators for materials, equipment and food service; and a dedicated elevator for patient transport to surgery, the ICU, labor and delivery, and the rooftop helipad.
In addition to inpatient services, the new 200,000-square-foot acute care hospital houses emergency , outpatient surgery, cardiovascular, critical care, orthopedic, and birthing and family care services.
Project Details:
Facility name: Northwest Health – La Porte
Location: La Porte, Ind.
Completion date: October 2020
Owner: Community Health Systems Inc.
Total building area: 200,000 sq. ft.
Total construction cost: $88 million
Cost/sq. ft.: $440/sq. ft.
Architecture firm: Gresham Smith
Interior design: Gresham Smith
General contractor: Robins & Morton
Engineering: Gresham Smith (structural), I.C. Thomasson Associates Inc. (MEP), RQAW Corporation (civil)
Builder: Robins & Morton
