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

Chief administrator: Gerald Fitzgerald, CEO/President, (313) 593-7000

Firms: Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum, Inc., (314) 754-4097; SSOE, Inc., (248) 643-6222

Design team: Lee Warnick, Principal-in-Charge; Jay Lingnell, Project Manager (SSOE, Inc. [Architect and Engineer of Record]); Paul Strohm, Principal-in-Charge (Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum, Inc. [Design Architect]); Jeff Reinke, Project Design Architect; Thomas Jeziorski, Project Manager (formerly with Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum, Inc.)

Photography: Cris Burkhalter Photography, LLC

Total building area (sq. ft.): 185,373 (new); 32,462 (renovation)

Construction cost/sq. ft.: $203 (new); $187 (renovation)

Total construction cost (excluding land): $37,548,398 (new); $6,055,500 (renovation)

The North Tower Expansion Project for Oakwood Hospital and Medical Center contains a replacement surgical department, a heart and vascular center, public reception/registration, and preadmission services.

The design addresses several goals that were challenged by site and expansion constraints. The outcome provides for increased surgical efficiencies and throughput, integration of advanced technologies in a new surgical model, and improved patient healing environments. The new Heart and Vascular Center builds on the hospital’s excellent reputation in cardiovascular care.

Fourteen new operating rooms serving inpatient and complex elective procedures are closely linked with the existing outpatient surgical suite. Preoperative and phase one perioperative care facilities are designed to be modular in concept. These 48 patient-care spaces support a nursing model of continuous care from induction to recovery.

The Heart and Vascular Center features three heart ORs, one interventional vascular lab, and 16 universal-care cardiac bedrooms. The main lobby opens into a two-story space surrounding the reception area and the preadmission testing suite. The open lobby atrium serves as a visual wayfinding space, allowing families to see their desired destinations.

The densely packed suburban site accommodates parking needs with the construction of two parking decks. The main lobby extends into the parking deck through the use of similar finishes and extensive use of glass and natural lighting.

The facility’s interior spaces feature colors and finishes that emphasize nature in patient and public areas, with liberal use of natural materials to support the healing environment.