The decision to renovate the aging Floyd Medical Center was based on a shift in services from inpatient to outpatient and a desire to create a more efficient, healing environment to accommodate today’s technologies.

Construction was orchestrated in phases to allow uninterrupted patient care. As the hospital was virtually landlocked on two of four sides, the hospital was turned around, with the new outpatient entry on the opposite side, allowing the addition of at-grade parking.

Physicians played a key role in the development of the new areas. All totaled, the phased project entailed the demolition of 13 buildings; construction of a new remote, central energy plant for energy efficiency and future expansion capabilities; more than 30,000 square feet of renovations; and a two-story expansion that includes a new lobby, new medical mall, dining, family resource center, and accommodations for surgery, radiology, central sterile, and diagnostics; a new medical office building; and a parking deck. The renovation also incorporated the conversion of an existing floor to a small unit of patient suites with separate sitting rooms for the benefit of family members.

Brick, EIFS, glass, and metal panels complement the existing hospital’s palette standards. The new lobby takes advantage of height, with entry into a grand space with natural progression. Circles are used to organize and to move people around in the public spaces. For easy wayfinding, the new mall acts as a spine, connecting the hospital’s relocated outpatient services.

The medical center is now better positioned to be more competitive with modern facilities.

Project category: New construction & Remodel/Renovation (completed April 2005)

Chief administrator: Warren A. (Sonny) Rigas, Vice-President and COO, (706) 802-2575

Firm: Earl Swensson Associates, Inc., (615) 329-9445

Design team: Todd Robinson, AIA, Principal-in-Charge, Architect/Interior Designer (Earl Swensson Associates, Inc.); Steve Irmscher, Principal-in-Charge, Program Manager (Adams Project Management Consulting, LLC); Trey Sanders, Project Manager, General Contractor (Brasfield & Gorrie); Jim Stephenson, Principal-in-Charge, Structural Engineer (Structural Design Group); Tom Malloy, Principal-in-Charge, MEP Engineer (Phoenix Design Group, Inc.); Jim Littlejohn, Principal-in-Charge, Civil Engineer/Landscaping (Littlejohn Engineering Associates)

Photography: Robert Ames Cook; Kieran Reynolds Photography

Total building area (sq. ft.): 130,000 (new); 32,000 (renovation)

Construction cost/sq. ft.: $205 (new); $205 (renovation)

Total construction cost (excluding land): $26,650,000 (new); $6,560,000 (renovation)