Contract - November 2016 - 65

Swedish Edmonds
Ambulatory Care Center
Architect and Interior
Designer NBBJ
Client Swedish Medical
Center and Providence
Health & Services
Where Edmonds, Washington
What 77,000 total square
feet on two floors
Cost/sf Withheld
at client's request
For a full project source list,
see page 108 or visit
contractdesign.com.

Living-room-like seating
areas within the lobby
(opposite) feature wingbacked chairs, wood-hewn
tables, and a fireplace. Linear
fixtures and skylights recall
the dappled light of a
forest. The bottom halves
of the logs in the installation
(above) are turned for ease
of cleaning within the
hospital setting. Indirect
lighting, including cove
lights above nurses'
stations (above, right),
augments the experience
on patient floors.

Anderson near the information desk. Swedish also
commissioned several new works for the project,
including local artist Lanny Bergner's steel mesh
piece evocative of X-rays that seemingly floats
above the information desk. At the far end of the
lobby, 18-foot-tall boom logs, which were once used
to corral timber that floated to mills, stand sentinel
as reminders of the city's past. The log installation
was a collaborative effort between NBBJ and Meyer
Wells, a furniture maker, who turned and filled
the bottom halves of the 250- to 300-year-old logs
for ease of cleaning within the hospital setting.
A welcoming presence for the hospital
The comfortable-yet-eclectic collection of lobby
furniture was carefully selected to accommodate
the medical center's aging population. "I had never
worked on a medical project before in which people
felt so at home that they move the furniture around,"
says Heather Nye, interior designer at NBBJ.
Visitors draw wing-backed chairs up to the fireplace
and move the low, wood-hewn tables in place
for footrests. To further encourage visitors to
experience the lobby as if it were a cafe or living
room, a Starbucks is positioned just off the lobby
without its own seating.

The Level IV Trauma Center combines
user-friendly experience with improved efficiency.
NBBJ organized the department into three main
zones based on acuity of care, with open central
staff areas ringed by patient rooms. "This improves
the line of sight and also increases communication
between staff," says Uyesugi.
Large patient rooms, which are designed
to accommodate visiting loved ones, feature glass
doors for acoustical privacy. In addition, smaller,
private seating areas are designated for triage,
allowing patients to quickly move out of the
anxiety-ridden limbo associated with the waiting
room atmosphere. Lighting throughout improves
the experience: A light cove floats beneath the
ceiling in the nursing stations to make them appear
lighter and brighter, while indirect lighting is
positioned throughout the corridors to ensure that
patients on gurneys never look directly into a fixture.
Physically and symbolically a new welcoming
presence for the hospital, Swedish Edmonds
Ambulatory Care Center connects Edmonds-area
residents to evidence-based, humane health
services. As Doerge says, "The project successfully
blends the latest in high-tech care with a place that
welcomes and embraces the community." c
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Contract - November 2016

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