Contract Magazine - June 2020 - 24

CallisonRTKL, in collaboration with PODS and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
developed containers that can be repurposed into isolation units for alternative
healthcare facilities treating COVID-19-positive patients. "As healthcare architects,
we understand the challenges faced by our clients during this crisis, including
concerns about patient assessment, care pathways for COVID and non-COVID
patients, protection of staff, and adequate bed capacity," says Raymond Brower,
AIA, NCARB, vice president, CallisonRTKL.
The design team made modifications to existing POD containers to provide
a safe, enclosed place for patients that minimizes medical staff exposure to the
virus when they are not in direct patient contact. "The mobility of the POD unit
challenged our team to consider how to design a facility that is self-contained
and well-positioned for rapid deployment and relocation to new sites of care
as the virus spread," Brower says. The units can easily be deployed for assessment,
examination, emergency treatment, and inpatient care, supplying a flexible
and adaptable platform.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based Perkins Eastman has joined several rapid
response teams to evaluate sites and then develop isolation units and temporary
healthcare facilities in New York; California; Washington, D.C.; North Carolina;
and South Carolina.
For one such project, the firm worked in conjunction with the Army Corps
of Engineers and Turner Construction to design and build a field hospital on Stony
Brook University's campus in Suffolk County, New York. Occupying several acres
and made up of five tents totaling 220,000 square feet, the project added 1,028
beds to Stony Brook University Hospital's existing capacity of 603 beds. Of the
added beds, 270 were designated for COVID-19 patients.
Perkins Eastman has also worked on several other COVID-19 response
facilities, including tent hospitals, conversions, and expansions in the New York City
area. Some of this work included the conversion of ambulatory surgery centers,
expansion of emergency departments, conversion and expansion of existing
facilities, and additional tent hospitals.

Perkins and Will's New York office and its Denmark-based studio, Schmidt
Hammer Lassen, collaborated to develop a concept for converting idle school
buses into mobile testing units. "A couple of days after the COVID-19 crisis hit
New York, our team started brainstorming ways we could put our diverse skills
and backgrounds into the service of our city and our communities," says Mariana
Giraldo, planner and strategist in Perkins and Will's New York studio. "It was through
a multidisciplinary and agile approach that the project quickly came to life."
Under a framework of five key parameters-mobility, accessibility, speed,
flexibility, ease of implementation, and scalability-the team began exploring
the refitting of vehicles. The resulting assembly system and accompanying
guidelines offer a low-tech, DIY system that can be quickly adopted by underserved
communities. The system also gathers essential geolocation and test-result data,
providing real-time information to help authorities with decision-making.
"The process itself has been important for our team; as designers, we need
to be ready to respond to complex design challenges with resilient responses,"
Giraldo says.

24

contractdesign.com

JUNE 2020

PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY OF PERKINS EASTMAN (RIGHT)

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Contract Magazine - June 2020

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