Project category: New construction & Remodel/Renovation (completed November 2004)

Chief administrator: Davide Carbone, Chief Executive Officer, (305) 682-7100

Firm: Gresham, Smith and Partners, (813) 251-6838

Design team: Orlando Lopez-Isa, AIA, Principal-in-Charge; Matthew G. Harrell, AIA, ACHA, Project Manager; Stephen D. Klein, AIA, Programmer, Planner; Jacqueline A. Russo, IIDA Associate, Interior Design Principal

Photography: Joe Lapeyra Photography; © Tocco Photography

Total building area (sq. ft.): 310,900 (new); 25,900 (renovation)

Construction cost/sq. ft.: $230 (total)

Total construction cost (excluding land): $77,500,000 (total)

A grand rotunda serves as the new main entry to welcome patients and visitors to the new Aventura Hospital Patient Tower. The project is a response to the initiation of a new Open Heart Surgery program and the vision of improving and expanding the major clinical functions of the hospital, and it includes the construction of an 800-vehicle parking facility. The ten-story horizontal addition to the existing hospital focuses on the functionality of the services offered by improving the quality of care and staff efficiency. The structure is designed to accommodate three additional floors of vertical expansion for future patient beds.

The rotunda includes a mezzanine that connects the new addition with the existing facility while allowing visual access to the entrance. The granite floors, wood-grain wall paneling, and fountain are integrated into the design to create a calming introduction to the facility.

Functional organization concentrates on staffing efficiency, functional adjacencies of departments, and necessary separations for patient/staff and public areas. Separate elevator cores and segregated departmental-access corridors provide separation between public and private areas. Outpatient and inpatient admitting are combined on the first floor to consolidate staffing and share a central support core with Emergency Department admitting. The Emergency Department is organized by emergent and urgent zones, grouped around imaging rooms, with separate ambulance and walk-in entries. A large central nurses’ station facilitates staff interaction and maximizes visibility.

Operating rooms and a PACU serve the ten-room surgery department on the second floor, with eight general operating rooms grouped around the clean supply core. A dedicated elevator provides priority access from the two Open Heart operating rooms to the fourth-floor CICU. The third-floor ICU is zoned as four pods and arranged with nursing substations situated between each pair of rooms. The pods are grouped in pairs and are connected by corridors to accommodate census shifts.

On the fourth floor, the north wing accommodates 10 cardiac ICU rooms and 10 med/surg ICU rooms. The 15 south-wing ICU rooms incorporate a unique design that includes patient bathrooms and ICU doors to allow for use as either ICU or telemetry.

Floors five through eight are designated as 42-bed telemetry or med/surg units, with all private rooms. Floors are arranged around a central nurses’ station, zoned into north and south wings, each with complementary functional support space. The ninth floor is shelled to quickly meet future demands for additional beds.