AIA Names Healthcare Design Awards Winners

WASHINGTON — Eight health care design projects are being honored as recipients of the 2014 AIA National Healthcare Design Awards program, the American Institute of Architects’ Academy of Architecture for Health announced last week.

These projects express the best of health care building design and health care design-oriented research, according to the AIA. The designs were chosen based on their strengths that solve aesthetic, civic, urban and social concerns as well as the requisite functional and sustainability concerns of a hospital.

Recipients were broken down into four categories: Category A, built, less than $25 million in construction cost; Category B, built, more than $25 million in construction cost; Category C, must be commissioned for compensation by a client with the authority and intention to built; and Category D, innovations in planning and design research, built and unbuilt.

Category A

• Legacy ER – Allen
• Allen, Texas
• 5G Studio Collaborative (Dallas)

Legacy ER operates a hybrid program offering urgent and 24/7, state-licensed emergency care services within a freestanding building. Completed in November 2013, the 8,500-square-foot facility was conceptualized as a reflection of the organization’s identity. The architecture captured the duality of the emergency medical professionals’ character, projecting outwardly the knowledge, skill, precision and decisiveness necessary for the competent practice of emergency medicine and expressing inwardly the gentle, empathic and humanistic qualities. Points of admission of natural daylight and views create apertures that elucidate intersecting tectonic moments.

This project also won a 2014 Metal Architecture Design Award from Metal Architecture for the Metal Roofing category and a 2013 AIA Unbuilt Award.

• Lightwell: Greater Boston Orthodontics
• Waltham, Mass.
• Merge Architects (Boston)

Merge Architects gutted a hundred-year-old storefront and warehouse on Main Street in Waltham to create an orthodontic clinic with reception and treatment areas flanked by semi-private offices, tooth-brushing stations, exam rooms and a staff coffee area. The focal point of the space is a double-height treatment space framed by an 18-foot-tall backlist translucent wall carving down in section to frame and light the open treatment area. CNC-cut plywood ribs skinned with thin polycarbonate panels funnel light from skylights above. The front waiting space is defined by a custom seating area and digital media bar, wool felt applied to walls, a custom light pendant and bright custom wall graphics to provide wayfinding.

The project also won a Best of 2013 award in the health care category from Interior Design Magazine.

Category B

• Lancaster General Health Ann B. Barshinger Cancer Institute
• Lancaster, Pa.
• Ballinger (Philadelphia)

Opened in July 2013, the 100,000-square-foot Lancaster General Health Ann B. Barshinger Cancer Institute is developed around a progressive model for cancer care and employs an interdisciplinary and patient-centric approach. Focused on regeneration and reconnection to living systems, the building’s radial form derives from an existing elevated, curvilinear arrival or parking court, which has become a central courtyard healing garden. The expanded oncology program is arrayed around the garden on two levels. Glazed skins and multiple points of access provide a continuous dialogue between interior and exterior, creating a visually open environment that reduces anxiety and stress for patients and their families.

• Mount Sinai Hess Center for Science and Medicine
• New York
• Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (Chicago)

Located in upper Manhattan and built in 2013, the Mount Sinai Hess Center for Science and Medicine places researchers, clinicians, educators and patients in an integrated environment with state-of-the-art technology. The 420,000-square-foot facility is specifically designed to foster multidisciplinary interaction through a network of formal and informal settings. The primary design objective was to craft a flexible environment that would be inspiring and supportive for employees, while also being gracious and dignified for patients and their families. Inside, natural light and a warm, simple material palette puts cancer patients at ease.

• Rush University Medical Center’s New Hospital Tower
• Chicago
• Perkins+Will (Chicago)

Perkins+Will planned and designed an 840,000-square-foot hospital building as part of Rush University Medical Center’s 10-year, $1 billion campus transformation project. Beginning in 2006 and ending in 2016, Rush has been building new facilities, renovating existing buildings and adopting new technologies. Crowned by a butterfly-shaped bed tower designed to minimize the distance between staff and patients, the new hospital is comprised of 304 acute and critical care beds, 72 neonatal intensive care beds, and 10 labor and delivery beds. The emergency department contains one of the country’s few bioterrorism preparedness facilities, and is designed to handle large-scale health emergencies. The hospital is one of the largest in the world to be certified LEED Gold.

Category C

• Children’s Hospital of Richmond Pavilion (CHoRP)
• Richmond, Va.
• HKS Inc. (Dallas)

At the gateway to the medical campus, the Children’s Hospital of Richmond Pavilion consolidates existing pediatric clinics into a compact vertical urban pavilion. The facility is dedicated to providing comprehensive health care for children and adolescents, and contains a surgery level, three levels of pediatric clinics, a faculty/research floor and seven levels of parking. Adjacent to some of the city’s most important civic structures, the design establishes a signature identity that embodies Virginia Commonwealth University’s objective of becoming the region’s premier pediatric academic medical institution. Drawing inspiration from natural elements that are unique to the city of Richmond, the design is intrinsically tied to its location. Themes of sky, water and forest bring nature to the heart of this urban campus. 


Category D


• Cincinnati Children’s Family Pet Center
• Cincinnati
• GBBN Architects (Cincinnati)

Opened in summer 2013, The Cincinnati Children’s Family Pet Center is believed to be the first pediatric hospital–based facility in the U.S. to reunite patients with their pets. The pet center expands the hospital’s pet therapy program with a 250-square-foot pavilion and lawn area that accommodates patients on foot, in a wheelchair or on a stretcher. This pavilion addresses the medical needs of the children and the physical dynamics of pets, based on research on the healing benefits of Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT).

• GHESKIO Cholera Treatment Center (CTC)
• Port-au-Prince, Haiti
• MASS Design Group (Boston)

Nearing completion, the GHESKIO Cholera Treatment Center is the first permanent facility in Port-au-Prince. The CTC provides an aggressive model for cholera treatment, while creating a healing space that promotes a dignified patient experience. Both the CTC’s layout and placement of amenities optimize staff and patient flow. The design tackles unique site conditions, including the lack of reliable piped water and lack of sewer system connection by providing off-the-grid services. The roof collects rainwater, which is stored in cisterns, chlorinated and then used for showers and sinks. The facility also decontaminates waste on site and is designed to achieve almost 100 percent removal and inactivation of Cholera Vibrio and other pathogenic organisms. The façade blends the use of the most advanced technology, using parametric modeling to optimize apertures for daylighting, ventilation and privacy, with deploying analog techniques for local fabrication. The CTC will not only establish new standards for cholera treatment, but also new standards for quality construction in Haiti.