When South Miami Hospital opened in 1960, it was a 100-bed institution serving a small suburban community in metropolitan Miami. Today, the 336-bed hospital is growing along with its population, enlarging and updating its physical plant and enhancing its reputation in such services as maternity care, cancer care, outpatient services, and cardiovascular care. To better serve its doctors and to attract others, the hospital recently completed a $24 million, six-story, 96,000-sq.-ft. medical arts building and a 600-car parking garage.

The Medical Arts Building houses outpatient services on the first floor, an ambulatory surgical suite on the second floor, and doctors’ offices on the upper floors. The shell of the building—first and second floor—were completed in December 2005. The tenant improvements were completed shortly thereafter and as needed by the physician tenants.

The parking garage offers direct links into the building and the hospital. In addition, the precast concrete construction makes efficient use of the small site, complements existing campus structures, and gives staff, patients, and visitors pedestrian-friendly links to the hospital—via an outdoor arcade walkway surrounding the ground-floor perimeter and pedestrian bridges between the building, garage, and hospital.

Project category: New construction (completed December 2005)

Chief administrator: Wayne Brackin, CEO, (786) 662-4000

Firm: MGE Architects, (305) 444-0413

Design team: Pedro A. Goicouria, AIA, Principal-in-Charge; Rolando Conesa, AIA, Designer; Maryann Pando-Avdakov, Project Manager; Robert Gil, Construction Administration (MGE Architects); MEP Engineers (TLC Engineering for Architecture); Structural and Civil Engineers (Pistorino and Alam)

Photography: ©2005 John Gillan

Total building area (sq. ft.): 96,000

Construction cost/sq. ft.: $249

Total construction cost (excluding land): $23,925,000