The 359-bed acute care hospital has been serving the Downriver community of Detroit since 1926. When funding was approved for its first major addition in over twenty years, the hospital wanted to expand and enhance its outpatient services, redefine the image of the hospital as a state-of-the-art healthcare center, and simplify the patients' overall healthcare experience while making it less intimidating.  The design challenge was to unify the old and new, yet signal the hospital's re-energized approach into the new millennium by giving the addition its own personality.

 

A limited budget meant getting the most usable area in the least square footage.  This implied a rectangular configuration rather than a more exotic, Y-shaped existing building with concave curved sides.  To maximize total buildable area, the 4-story addition is sited diagonally to the existing 10-story hospital and as close to the street as possible. Setback requirements generated the building's trapezoidal shape.  For maximum efficiency, the new building aligns with existing towers and functions.  Abandoned space in the existing facility was adapted for new functions. A simple circulation system was created utilizing both sides of the new and existing elevators which separates public, staff and patient traffic and also provides a cost effective system for horizontal and vertical expansion up to four future floors.

 

In association with HDR Architecture, Inc.