NEWS
The Anlyan Center for Medical Research and Education at the Yale University School of Medicine is the centerpiece of the institution’s facilities plan for the next decade, providing state-of-the-art laboratory space for disease-based research, core facilities for mouse genomics and magnetic resonance imaging, and teaching facilities for anatomy and histology. It is the largest capital project ever undertaken at Yale University, increasing research space at the medical school by 25%.
The complex is composed of two wings linked by a shared lobby at the east end. It is entered through a curved limestone arcade that defines a plaza facing Cedar Avenue, the major north south axis of the medical school campus. The wings enclose a landscaped courtyard that sits above magnetic resonance imaging facilities. Exterior finishes and lighting are carried into the soaring lobby that connects the entry plaza with the courtyard. The four-story wing containing medical education facilities, an auditorium, and a student lounge responds in scale to adjacent campus buildings along Congress Avenue. The larger six-story wing housing research laboratories and offices will have research space constructed on the adjacent site in the future.
The building wings derive their forms and rhythm of windows from the generic order of the lab modules. Street facades are brick, limestone and granite, continuing the traditional campus materials. Bands of black brick and brownstone trim create plays of scale and engage the viewer seeing the building close-up. Within the courtyard, buff brick is used to enhance natural light and provide contrast to the street facades.
The plan concentrates labs on the building’s perimeter in order to benefit from natural light and external views. Lab floor plans are arranged in repetitive generic modules accommodating spatial and mechanical flexibility. Eight research programs are accommodated in the initial laboratory plan. The magnetic resonance center includes both MRI and MRS research and will serve patients from the Yale-New Haven Hospital. Yale’s medical education facilities include a gross anatomy laboratory, histology teaching laboratory, and small group seminar and conference spaces.
April 19th, 2017
As a component of our work at Lehigh Valley Hospital – Cedar Crest, VSBA planned, designed, and oversaw construction for the Center for Advanced Health Care, a LEED Silver certified facility whose mission is to create a personal, patient-centered and life-affirming experience for the patient. The 4-story, 132,000 square foot medical office building provides a range of ambulatory care services at the east side of campus.
VSBA planned and designed the interior of the building’s lobby and two floors. The fourth floor outpatient Neuroscience Center serves patients and encourages cross-disciplinary collaborations by staff, physicians, and all care providers. The Center’s mission is to create a personal, patient-centered and life-affirming experience for the patient. The 30,000 sf facility brings together neurology, neurosurgery, neuroradiology, neuropsychiatry, physical and occupational therapy, and a range of Centers of Excellence in one comprehensive center.
The Neuroscience Center program derives from extensive planning by workgroups and architects, comprised of practice and hospital representatives, whose goal is to create a collaborative environment that benefits patient care and encourages innovation and interdisciplinary interactions by care providers.
The Center’s floor plan is organized into a series of flexible pods of examination and consultation rooms, with associated clinical and administrative support areas to allow multidisciplinary care teams to come to patients — rather than have patients move from specialist to specialist, as part of one comprehensive visit. Wayfinding and circulation paths are simple and easy to travel for patients with a range of mobility and cognitive challenges. Patient encounter spaces can be used in a variety of ways, allowing for unknown evolutions in clinical practice. Technology will have an increasing role in the organization, work flow, and patient interactions on the floor, and the backbone for this is provided in the architecture and systems design.
Finishes and materials for the clinical areas were selected to balance an image of efficiency with warm, natural, and soothing elements that appeal to patients and their families. Administrative areas are also designed with careful attention to natural light, views, and appealing finishes.
April 19th, 2017
VSBA designed a major expansion for the Lehigh Valley Hospital’s Cedar Crest Campus and oversaw construction of the final phase of its facility master plan projects. The Kasych Pavilion, centerpiece of the campus, includes:
- a 182-bed (all private) patient care tower
- 6 new operating rooms
- 3 30-bed medical / surgical units
- 2 intensive care units with 44 beds total
- cardiac unit
- 30-bed open-heart unit in-patient tower
- 18-bed regional burn center
- expanded emergency department from 23 to 48 treatment bays, accommodating over 70,000 annual visits
- conference and administrative space for education, health, and wellness classes
- surface and deck parking for patients, visitors, staff, and physicians.
The Pavilion’s design derives from the context of existing hospital buildings and their precast concrete and aluminum curtain wall aesthetic. The new building defers to the existing central entrance but creates facades that are predominantly windows into patient rooms and colorful aluminum panels. At ground level, large expanses of windows encourage transparency and connections between the interior concourse and the exterior “Avenue of the Arts.” The modularity of the building’s function inspires the rhythmic patterns of vertical and horizontal materials and details.
The interior concourse connects the new building to the existing pedestrian circulation system, bringing it to the front to allow natural light and exterior views. This space is designed to be a place for patients, visitors, conference attendees, and staff, so it must accommodate their varied needs. A convenience store, located near the staff entrance, provides a needed amenity for nurses and physicians on their way to and from work. The concourse is furnished with durable terrazzo floors, laminate wall panels, and natural cherry wood doors, benches, and display cases. Graphics and fine art adorns the concourse, including quotes from inspirational thinkers and bronze casts of medical educators. Graphic panels and a comprehensive signage program throughout the building describe the sustainable initiatives used to achieve LEED certification.
The Kasych Pavilion is an environmentally friendly building. One of the fundamental principles of healing and healthcare is first do no harm, and in our design we’ve minimized impact on the global environment while taking many measures to make sure this building is healthy and safe. Specific strategies include:
- carefully controlling indoor chemical and pollutant sources, with entries designed to capture dirt and particulates
- implementing an exhaust ventilation heat recovery system
- using low-emitting materials which minimize exposure to things like volatile organic compounds and formaldehyde
- providing generous natural daylight and external views in all occupied areas to benefit patients, visitors, physicians, and staff
- using regional materials and resources
- diverting nearly 90% of construction waste from going to landfills.
As a component of our work at Lehigh Valley Hospital’s Cedar Crest campus, VSBA planned, designed, and oversaw construction for the Center for Advanced Health Care, a LEED Silver certified anchor for ambulatory care whose mission is to create a personal, patient-centered and life-affirming experience for the patient. Physicians’ offices, clinical spaces, and other tenants are located here. VSBA was Design Architect for the site planning, massing, exterior skin, and public spaces of the building, as well as two floors of clinical facilities within the building, the Neuroscience Center, and the Lehigh Valley Heart Specialists Diagnostic Center. The floor also contains a public corridor connecting the enclosed pedestrian bridge to the building, and a café serving light food and drinks for building occupants, patients, and families.
April 19th, 2017
VSBA, in collaboration with architects FreemanWhite, Inc., completed a major expansion of the Lehigh Valley Hospital – Muhlenberg. After conducting master and organizational planning for the Hospital, we embarked on a $42 million renovation of 100,000 square feet and creation of a new 265,000 square feet patient tower and clinical care units.
The Hospital now features 188 private rooms for critical care, cardiac, and medical/surgical patients; expansion of the Regional Heart Center; an intensive care unit; Diagnostic Care Center; new hospital entrance and lobby; cafeteria; pharmacy; chapel; retail space; and increased visitor and staff parking.
Patient and clinical areas were designed with the patient and family in mind. An administrative staff member is located to provide personal contact upon arrival at each floor. Each unit includes a room for family members to stay overnight. Units are designed to help staff focus on patient care by distributing functions usually located at a central nurse station to staff areas at the entrance to the patient’s room. Each room provides separate zones for patient, staff, and family. To improve flexibility and decrease patient relocations, the twelve-bed open-heart unit was designed to provide complete services from post-surgery to discharge.
An iconic 48-foot blue “H” marks the Hospital’s entrance. It’s integrated into a limestone arcade that welcomes visitors and supports the entrance canopy. The building’s facade is red brick and limestone on the front and buff brick on the sides and back. An applied metal grid on the front represents the advanced technological structure and complements the more traditional brickwork. On the interior, warm finishes, patterns, and colors help to create a comforting atmosphere while providing useful wayfinding.
President and CEO Elliot Sussman writes: “…Yesterday I found a few extra minutes and took a walk through our new hospital. It is simply amazing! I love the space, I love the light, I love the details….What a wonderful resource for our community….Thank you for giving us such a splendid building.”
When we designed a new hospital building for the Lehigh Valley Health Network at Muhlenberg, we incorporated a series of large decorative murals in the lobby and public circulation areas.
Subsequently, we were asked to adapt these large-scale murals for two other locations — elsewhere at the Muhlenberg hospital and also for their Mack Boulevard administrative building.
Our murals are composed of a selection of quotes from many sources, which were selected by LVHN employees. They’re intended as comforting, supporting, inspirational, and humorous. We used vinyl lettering, which is durable but also economical and easily removable.
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) joined with the City of Philadelphia in a public-private partnership to create the new South Philadelphia Community Health and Literacy Center. This innovative facility combines a City Health Center, a CHOP primary care practice, a branch of the Free Library, and a City recreation center with playground. The Center serves an ethnically diverse population from the surrounding communities, many of whom are recent immigrants. The mix of uses enables joint wellness programs combining health education, clinical treatment, and physical activity. The project is LEED Silver certified.
The site — extending from Broad Street to 15th Street and from Morris Street to Castle Avenue — is surrounded on three sides by 19th century townhouses. Broad Street is characterized by a vibrant mix of activities and uses. Originally lined with grand houses, it’s evolving as home to commercial activities and institutions that benefit from the high visibility and proximity to transit. The Center angles back at the corner of Broad and Morris to form an entry plaza, with a sitting wall and planting bed extending from an entrance to the Broad Street subway. “See the Moon,” a sculpture of mother and child by Evelyn Keyser, sits at the south end of the bed and addresses pedestrians on Broad Street. Enclosed parking is provided on-site for staff.
The Broad Street façade is highly transparent to engage passersby. The upper two stories containing the clinical spaces are cantilevered slightly to disengage from the column grid, enabling a rhythmic array of vertical glazed curtainwall units and striped metal panels. The panels display rainbow colors in an animated mix, suggesting the vibrant multicultural nature of the community. A continuous aluminum plate signband with punched-out letters identifies the building while adding a contrasting horizontal element. At street level, large windows between cast stone piers give views to and from the library. Together, these elements bring civic scale, individual and collective identity, and a touch of fun. Meanwhile, facades facing the residential streets combine more traditional red brick and punched window openings. A cast stone base and belt courses provide horizontal accents.
Inside, a common circulation core serves the library and clinical spaces.
The Library is the first of the City’s Building Inspiration: 21st Century Libraries Initiative, whose goals are to reestablish the Library as a key resource and “portal to learning, public services, economic opportunity, recreation, and community engagement.” The library has general seating arrayed along the Broad Street side as well as clusters of flexible seating and collections defining areas for different age groups and activities. Enclosed spaces include a dividable multi-purpose room and a combination computer lab and “maker space.”
The clinical floors above are served from lobbies connected by a double-height space overlooking Broad Street. Waiting areas also overlook Broad Street with services organized along color-coded corridors extending from the waiting areas. Staff areas have discreet entrances from the lobbies and are separated from patient areas.
The City Health Center includes a pharmacy, dental suite, and radiology suite in addition to exam rooms and counseling spaces. Patients, often walk-ins, are screened in the outer waiting area and then directed to the appropriate section of the inner waiting area.
The upper CHOP floor contains exam rooms with a central nurse station. Patients are received in a single waiting area and then escorted to the appropriate exam room.
The recreation center houses a multipurpose space and computer room used by students in afterschool programs. The rec center, basketball court, and playground engage the surrounding residential neighborhood.
Photos and drawings by VSBA Architects and Planners
