The award for projects that have already been built, with a construction cost totaling less than $25 million, went to the inpatient Willson Hospice facility at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital. The 34,000-square-foot structure in southwest Georgia sits on 210 acres of beautiful forested land. The building achieved a LEED Silver certification and was the first health care facility in the world to earn a Signature Silver Sanctuary designation by Audobon International. The project was designed by Chicago-based Perkins+Will, with Alabama firm Brasfield & Gorrie serving as construction manager.

Massachusetts General Hospital received the award for a fully constructed project totaling more than $25 million in construction cost for its Lunder Building. The multipurpose facility hosts 150 inpatient beds, procedural programs, forward-looking technologies, and new emergency and radiation oncology departments. The structure is sensibly organized, with the procedural program located on the lower levels and the inpatient beds in their own areas on the higher floors. The building completes an urban campus in downtown Boston by tying five previously existing facilities together. The feature most likely to be noticed by patients is a multi-story atrium garden that runs through all five inpatient floors. The award announcement recognized the structure for employing a performance-based design, “utilizing research to reduce falls and injury; minimizing medical error and infection; improving staff productivity and communication; and enhancing patient and family healing, comfort, and satisfaction.” The structure was designed by NBBJ out of Washington State, while New York-firm Turner Construction served as construction manager.

In the category of facilities yet to be built, Kenya Women and Children’s Wellness Center in Nairobi, Kenya took the prize. The project will consist of several new facilities, which will be part of the United States International University. The additions will include a 170-bed hospital, specific outpatient clinics for women and children, a family village, an institute of learning, a gender-violence recovery center and a forensic laboratory. The structures were constructed and organized specifically with the Kenyan climate in mind. The buildings are long and narrow and oriented east to west to minimize heat gain. Overhangs on the north and south faces provide shade, while the construction of east and west walls minimize direct solar radiation. The structures are naturally ventilated to best suit the temperate climate. The project was the second award winner designed by Perkins+Will.

The National Intrepid Center of Excellence won the award for innovations in planning and design research, which allows both built and yet-to-be-built projects to apply. The building will house efforts to advance the research, diagnosis and treatment of traumatic brain injuries. The facility will focus on the wide range of possible negative outcomes associated with traumatic brain injury (TBI), including cognitive, physical and psychological disabilities. The structure utilizes a multidisciplinary clinic concept that mixes clinical and research functions, including sophisticated technology like advanced imaging and virtual reality, which will go side by side with efforts to allow families to be deeply involved in patients’ recovery processes. The award announcement explained the center “is a prototype for similar military and civilian TBI centers worldwide, and will serve as the primary hub of a network of satellite clinics now under development.”

SmithGroupJJR, out of Detroit, designed the project with New York firm Plaza Construction serving as construction manager.

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UH comprises the largest health care system in the Northeast Ohio region and is affiliated with Case Western Reserve University. The network includes more than 24,000 employees, performing more than 4.5 million outpatient procedures and nearly 63,000 inpatient discharges annually. The new structure is one of the 12 freestanding cancer hospitals in the nation that has earned the National Cancer Institute’s rating as a Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The 375,000-square-foot, 10-story facility cost $260 million and was named in honor of Jane and Lee Seidman, who donated $42 million to the effort — the largest single donation in University Hospitals’ history. Lee Seidman founded The Motorcars Group in 1958, which went on to become one of the nation’s largest networks of auto dealerships. The pair have been active philanthropists ever since, and are particularly interested in cancer research.

“Jane and I have been fortunate with a successful business and that, coupled with the tradition of giving passed along to us by our parents, has provided us the inspiration to give back,” Seidman explained in a statement. "Cancer has impacted many of our loved ones and we are overjoyed to make this gift that may lead to finding cures for cancer.”

The new building consolidates all the cancer services at the medical center into one location. The structure also triples the size of areas dedicated to cancer-related services at the campus, adding 120 beds to the operation, with capacity to accommodate 30 more, if needed. The structure fits into UH’s $1 billion fundraising campaign, Discover the Difference, which has raised $685 million since it began in 2003.

The first visual aspect to jump out at most visitors will be the building’s striking curved face, which resembles the wall of a futuristic half-pipe, like those used by skiers or skateboarders in the Winter Olympics or X Games. This design allowed for larger lobby spaces and treatment areas to be installed in the lower levels, while also giving the structure a futuristic, otherworldly appeal. The design also allows for an abundance of natural lighting, as the entire face of the building is teeming with extremely wide windows.

The effect was achieved through collaboration between Bridgeton, Mo. firm Universe Cladding Solutions (UCS) and Huron Valley Glass of Ypsilaniti, Mich. UCS fabricated 59,000 square feet of Reynobond natural brushed aluminum composite material specifically for this project. This was the only natural metal composite material on the market that would allow for 62-inch wide sections, which were required by the design. Most of the panels were prefabricated and installed as-is, but the sections for the curved area had to be formed individually using hot air welding.

The panels were installed in Universe Cladding’s U2000R dry-joint rain screen system, as it allowed for the curved shape and also makes future repairs easier. Each panel can be removed separately, rather than having to remove entire sections of paneling to work on one of them.

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