Project category: New construction & Remodel/Renovation (completed July 2007)

Chief administrator: Kenneth S. Lewis, MD, President & CEO, (410) 392-7009

Firm: Marshall Craft Associates, Inc., (410) 532-3131

Design team: Tonia E. Burnette, RA, Project Executive; David S. Watts, AIA, Principal-in-Charge/Project Manager; Thomas J. Carlson, AIA, Project Architect; King K. Cheuk, Architectural Designer; Carol A. Doering, CID, IIDA, Interior Designer (Marshall Craft Associates, Inc.); Edward J. Burke, PE, Mechanical Engineer (Kovacs Whitney & Associates, Inc.)

Photography: Dan Watson Photography; Silver Dancer Productions

Total building area (sq. ft.): 40,732 (new); 30,300 (renovation)

Construction cost/sq. ft.: $374 (new); $145 (renovation)

Total construction cost (excluding land): $15,241,791 (new); $4,380,853 (renovation)

Union Hospital needed 48 new inpatient beds, but the tightly constricted expansion site prevented the addition of 100% private rooms. The architects tackled the challenge of adding 48 beds in the allotted space without resorting to traditional double rooms by creating a new room type: “zoned semiprivate” rooms, which marry aspects of traditional private and semiprivate rooms for privacy and efficiency.

Zoned semiprivate rooms offer patients individual toilet/shower rooms, one extending into the room to create personal zones with greater visual and acoustical privacy; and individual HVAC for improved infection control. Union Hospital gains staff visibility of four patients from a satellite station located between two rooms; increased operational efficiency; and their target bed capacity. Four zoned semiprivate rooms join 16 private rooms on each floor for a flexible and efficient unit.

The addition’s private rooms were designed with nurses’ stations located between each pair. The toilet/showers are designed as one room, with a handheld shower on the wall, maximizing flexibility and ease of assistance. Family zones in each patient room are equipped with a daybed and reading light.

By conforming the building to its irregular site, the design opens up the central core for greater visibility from the workstation. The exterior design of the addition mimics the rhythm of the window pattern in the original building but updates the look with metal panels and curtainwall.

The addition was designed to support a future fourth floor and allow surgical services to expand into the undeveloped first floor.