Healthcare Design - August 2016 - 71

However, patient comfort is still a top priority,
with many projects focusing on patient and family
amenities and design features that promote
healing. "The indoor/outdoor connections were
prevalent in almost all of the entries reviewed and
it was refreshing to see," Wyre says.
Juror Todd Cohen, director of healthcare
capital planning and client success at AtSite Inc.
(Washington), agrees. "You don't need to have a
conversation with an administrator about the value
of natural light anymore-they get it," he says.
And while this year's Showcase projects
illustrate some new approaches to bringing light
and nature into patient, staff, and even treatment
spaces, Wyre would like to see these efforts
pushed even further, not just through artwork
and windows but through the addition of outdoor
spaces. "We've seen this on a small scale in
notable projects, but it seems to be a concept
reserved for high-end projects," she says. "I'd
challenge any facility to consider affordable
ways to integrate outdoor terraces, gardens,
and walking paths into their design, not only on
ground floors but for upper floors as well."
Building connections
Jurors agree that the best designs are authentic
and distinctive to the healthcare provider's brand,
the community served, and the physical context,
such as the graphics and artwork inside the
Honorable Mention-winning University Medical
Center New Orleans (UMC; New Orleans) that
pay homage to the French Quarter neighborhood
and the city's history. "Healthcare facility designs
should be as varied as the communities served,"
says Jon Buggy, principal at RSP Architects
(Minneapolis).
These efforts could also be seen in exterior
designs, where designers maximized material
choice and architecture to create a synergy
between the site and the building. For example,
the University of Arizona Cancer Center (Award
of Merit) utilized a dramatic, layered building
envelope and locally derived materials and
colors to reflect its desert climate, while the
Josie Robertson Surgery Center Memorial Sloan
Kettering Cancer Center (Honorable Mention)
resolved its tight urban site in New York with a
vertical layout and a veiled glass façade to offer
varying degrees of privacy while still preserving
views to the city.
Lambur notes that some of the bigger hospital
projects also showed efforts to scale their
buildings to complement residential settings,

such as UMC's new hospital, which opted for a
multi-building approach, rather than the traditional
large podium and bed tower set-up. "It fits with
the neighborhood scale and character [of New
Orleans] without sacrificing operational efficiency,"
he says.
Future investments
One area where jurors were underwhelmed was
in the design of staff spaces, especially considering the pressure organizations face to retain skilled
employees. Mitch Goplen, vice president of facility
services at Billings Clinic (Billings, Mont.), wondered
where the natural light, respite spaces, and sleep
rooms for employees were. "The design has to
incorporate more to support staff," he says.
Scot Latimer, president of Latimer Health
Strategies (Evergreen, Colo.), says staff amenities
still fall below patient solutions for most clients in
this era of consumer-driven healthcare. "I suspect
some were value-engineered out, while others
never made it to the program," he says. "Sadly, it
doesn't require much (if any) money to improve
environments for staff."
Juror Cohen says he'd also like to see more
focus on private areas where families and care
teams can collaborate on treatment planning
and where patients can ask questions, process
the complexity of a diagnosis, and even grieve.
"The diagnosis in the corridor, outside of the
waiting room, or within earshot of a stranger or
friend can't work for privacy and protected health
information reasons," he says. "But we must not
tolerate it as families and patients hear lasting
and damaging information with so many outside
distractions."
As healthcare designers and architects seek
to address these challenges, Wyre says the
investment in patient- and staff-centered spaces,
refined materials, and iconic structures can pay
off. "In this climate of competition, clients want
to establish a brand that is well-known to the
public," she says. "Even though iconic structures
may cost more, they become their own marketing
machines as they draw patients to a different type
of experience and level of care." HCD
Anne DiNardo is senior editor of Healthcare Design.
She can be reached at anne.dinardo@emeraldexpo.
com.

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Healthcare Design - August 2016

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