Healthcare Design - April 2014 - 18

HCDmagazine.com 04.14

Artwork and access to outdoor spaces and
gardens provide positive distractions, while
the ICU has decentralized nurses' stations to
enhance safety and reduce staff travel distances.
A central atrium and courtyard open up the
middle of the building, providing natural light and
supporting intuitive wayfinding to reduce stress.
Rubber floors, carpet, and acoustical ceiling
panels help mitigate noise.
"There are also plenty of spaces for visitors to
gather away from patients," says Laura Thielen,
vice president at HKS, citing the gardens, atrium
waiting areas, and a private meditation room on
one of the patient floors that has views of the
ocean.
Great effort was also made to ensure that
movement from the street into the clinical areas
is smooth, by putting high-volume clinics and
the pharmacy on the first floor, near the main
entrance. "The staff likes the way the building
functions and flows," says Capt. Mark A. Kobelja,
commanding officer of the Naval Hospital Marine
Corps Base Camp Pendleton. "They're not fighting the facility like they were in the old hospital.
They love the natural light and views."
Outside, "the materials and massing of the
building reflect the coastal environment of California with its distinctive rocky bluffs," says Thomas
Todd, vice president and healthcare principal at
HDR. "The design is clean, classic, and strong,
with a sense of order and discipline-very much
like the military."

Above: Patients and staff
appreciate the spectacular
views that the building affords
through its many windows
and this outdoor balcony area,
which is part of the command
suite on the top floor. Opposite:
Providing access to nature and
natural light was one of the
main objectives of this project.
More than a lightwell, the
interior courtyard has a green
landscaped area with palm
trees and plantings.

ED LACASSE

Designing a landmark
Providing emergency, primary, intensive, and specialty care, the new hospital (on a 1 million-squarefoot campus) has 96 outpatient procedure rooms
and 205 exam rooms, as well as 54 patient rooms
that accommodate up to 60 beds for nonambulatory
patients who require stays in excess of 24 hours.
Reflecting the mostly young military population it
serves, the hospital also has eight labor and delivery
rooms, together with 16 postpartum suites. Outpatient care alone is expected to reach around 2,000
visits per day.
The interior design is modern yet familiar, with
warm colors and materials, soft curves, and natural
light used to communicate a sense of caring and
compassion for the 70,000 active-duty and military
veterans and their families who use the facility.
Each patient floor has a theme inspired by nature-
ocean, earth, sun, and sky-with fabrics, materials, colors, signage, and artwork that reflect those
organic elements.
Evidence-based design features include 200- to
220-square-foot single-patient rooms with space
for family members, patient lifts, and views to the
outdoors. A few of the patient rooms, however, are
semiprivate, according to Carlos Gonzales, the
leader of the design-build joint venture who is now
a vice president at Clark Concrete Contractors, a
subsidiary of Clark Construction Group. "Anecdotal
information from staff indicated that multiple Marines
injured in a single event heal faster and have better
attitudes when they're with their buddies," he says.

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Healthcare Design - April 2014

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