Title: Moses Cone Memorial Hospital - Women's Hospital
Location of Proejct: Greensboro, North Carolina
Project Completion Date: 2019
Firm Name: HKS

Short Description: The design concept for the new women’s and children’s center at Cone Health focused on embodying a distinct identity for women influenced by a unique integrated project delivery (IPD) process. Drawing from the exterior vernacular of the campus and surrounding foliage, the hospital expansion distinguishes itself through a harmonious palette and integrative landscape.

The new terracotta tower sits atop a brick podium with a glass vertical circulation element separating old versus new. The architecture creates a defined, inviting entry while maximizing views and connecting patient rooms to nature emphasized by the fritted tree pattern on the west end.

Architect's Statement: PROCESS

Implementation of the cone health’s new women’s hospital design is through an integrated lean project delivery. In this method, all signing parties (owner, contractor, architect, consultants) are key stake holders and, most importantly, partners whose focus is to create a better experience for the patients and their families while providing innovative ways to reduce cost and increase efficiency in construction while reaching the project’s potential through every stakeholder’s voice. This process focused on the collaboration between team members, owners, and final users so the design intent is clearly defined and cohesive from beginning to end. Thru lean operational planning, full-scale bed floor mock-ups, and scenario planning, processes were simulated to validate the design.

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

Clear and definitive identity for women’s
A successful relationship of old and new is achieved through the language of the exterior. While new materials are introduced to modernize the addition, the extension is visually unified to the campus’ consistent architectural elements. Furthermore, typical elements are examined and reconstructed to complement the program needs and building functions.
The palette of materials chosen for the exterior facade is simplified and extrapolated from the existing brick masonry throughout the campus. The terracotta tower and brick podium are designed to connect to the existing campus while also simplifying the new center’s identity.
The ambition was to embody the identity that was distinguished by the client and user meetings holistically from the outside to the inside of the new women’s hospital.

Biophilic connection
Starting at the macro scale, the Greensboro Greenway, the biophilic connection is unified into the cone campus to the micro level, the roof garden, to private balcony, to frit. The curtain wall frit pattern on the west end elevates the importance of biophilia as a visual connection to the lush landscape outside that wraps around the building. Moreover, the tree graphic represents the idea of regrowth - a concept that is strengthened as it continues into and is celebrated throughout the interior space. Additionally, being a SW dominant elevation, the frit is critical in reducing solar heat gain for the performance of the building and glare for the patients and staff while still allowing for maximum views out to the lush landscape beyond.

The Greensboro Greenway was established to promote health and wellness in the community and the cone health campus is no exclusion. The proposal is to extend the greenway to encompass the cone campus in hopes to give back to the community and be an exemplary health campus.

PLANNING STRATEGIES

Key planning strategies discovered through our ipd process: planning for the new women’s hospital began with exercises to identify the ideal state for the ‘patient experience’ and the ‘care provider experience’. Interviews and studies were conducted to understand the patient and family journey through the women’s hospital to optimize the experience and inform the design choices for the new facility.

Neighborhoods
The units are broken up into neighborhoods with each zone of patient rooms having its own set of support spaces, reducing footsteps for the staff and allowing more time at the bedside.
Daylight & views
End of corridors are left open for daylighting. Collaborative work spaces are located centrally along the exterior wall. These spaces have extensive glazing on the interior wall to bring light into the building and afford views to the outside from the central staff stations.
Private vs public
A clear separation of service traffic and visitor traffic was created with a ‘back of house’ side and public side of the building

INTERIOR DESIGN

The interior of the hospital is designed for enhancing the patient and family experience for the Greensboro community. Key planning strategies discovered through the IPD process include the creation of patient care neighborhoods, an emphasis on biophilic design, and delineation between private and public spaces.
Patient units are broken up into neighborhoods each defined by a feature color and a flowering tree image for ease of wayfinding. A focus on daylighting and views are key aspects of the biophilic design benefiting both patient and staff. Corridor terminations create framed vignettes of nature and daylight. The exterior glazing is maximized to provide light into the core of the building at staff collaborative workspaces.
Workflow studies result in a clear separation between service and visitor traffic. This creates a “private” and “public” side to the building optimizing staff, visitor, and patient flow. Each neighborhood of patient rooms has its own support spaces which optimizes staff efficiency through room standardization and reduction in steps, allowing staff more time at the bedside.