Every project has a story to tell, but there’s only so much space to tell them. Here, the 2013 Architectural and Interior Design Showcase jurors have called out some notable elements of specific projects that are worthy of attention.

High-end hospitality
From the jury: “These two projects referencing hospitality for patient care environments were really interesting in the way they demonstrated tremendous diversity in the architectural product. Forest Park Medical Center Frisco (Frisco, Texas; photos 1 and 2) is barely recognizable as a medical facility and approaches the patient as a valued VIP guest in a contemporary luxury hotel.  Kaleida Health Gates Vascular Institute/UB Clinical Translational Research Center (Buffalo, N.Y.; photo 3) appears as a radically modern expression of cutting-edge healthcare technology and research. We felt that both facilities appealed to the highly insured patient and represented the divergence between healthcare design for Medicare/Medicaid patients and the highly insured.”

Face forward
For Indiana University Health’s Neuroscience Center of Excellence (Indianapolis; photos 4-7), the jury was particularly impressed with the project’s “use of a universal grid for flexibility and adaptability, as well as the iconic, sculptural façade. You can tell that there’s innovation going on inside this building.”

Light and day
From the jury: “UPMC East (Monroeville, Pa.; photos 8 and 9) features a good use of skylights and daylighting, especially in clinical spaces which usually don’t have natural lighting. The outside gardens relate well to the interior; [the project is] successful in relation to its site.”

Complex geometry
The Mother Baby Center, an in-progress project at Abbott Northwestern Hospital & Children’s Hospitals & Clinics (Minneapolis; photos 10 and 11), is, according to the jury: “remarkable for the complexity of the site and the strategies for creating an identifiable building and satisfactory windows/views for mother/baby rooms. The site is basically residual space between existing hospital buildings. It connects to the existing buildings and functions at multiple levels and interfaces with the complex geometry of existing building faces.”

Seamless green
From the jury: “Palomar Medical Center (Escondido, Calif.; photo 12) provides a striking example of a vegetated roof in a hospital campus. The roof is integral to the overall design, covering the low-rise diagnostics and therapeutics portion of the building with an undulating form punctuated by two courtyards, creating a foreground for the patient tower.”

Taking the long view
From the jury: “In New Jersey, where large greenfield sites suitable for construction of a new hospital campus are hard to come by, University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro (Plainsboro, N.J.; photos 13 and 14) encompassed remediation of a 170-acre brownfield site. To offset the considerable costs of remediation, the owner planned the site as a healthcare campus, selling off parcels for development of compatible uses. What’s remarkable, we felt, was the approach to site creation. This campus embodies health in a way that’s very inspiring, healing a site in a way that’s positive for the planet, the community, and the organization.”

For details on the 2013 Healthcare Design Architectural and Interior Design Showcase Citation of Merit winners, see: