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

Chief administrator: Ed Morton, Chief Executive Officer, NCH Healthcare System, (239) 436-5113

Firm: Jonathan Bailey Associates, (469) 227-3900

Design team: Jonathan Bailey, CEO, Director of Design; Curtis Qualis, Project Planner; Robert Lawyer, Project Manager (Jonathan Bailey Associates); Richard Zinser, Principal, Senior Structural Engineer (Zinser Grossman); Michael Sheerin, PE, Principal, Director Healthcare Engineering (TLC for Architecture)

Photography: Ben Tanner

Total building area (sq. ft.): 171,300 (new); 38,000 (renovation)

Construction cost/sq. ft.: $198 (new); $211 (renovation)

Total construction cost (excluding land): $34,000,000 (new); 8,000,000 (renovation)

The expansion and renovation of North Collier Hospital in Naples, Florida, keeps pace with growth in northern Collier and southern Lee County. The project provides more than 209,000 square feet of new construction and renovations, including a new six-story acute care tower for surgical, pediatrics, and intensive care services, as well as a new entry connecting public spaces. Most importantly, the project rejuvenates the hospital’s image.

The new tower introduces a unique architectural feature to the campus, adding a palette of materials, shapes, and elements that will invigorate the campus for generations to come. With a glass vestibule, soaring curved walls, and a glass façade, the new tower offers a striking view. The wall is clad with panels of Red Dragon marble veneer on aluminum substrate. Interior aspects enhance the public approach to the facility and add efficiency by shortening distances between patient and staff areas. The aesthetic impact of the overall design provides a pleasant and healing environment for patients, visitors, and staff. The new facility makes excellent use of natural lighting, and spaces for support functions are segregated from patient and public areas to maintain a hospitable rather than clinical feel.

The acute care tower dominates the campus and creates the new beacon for the community. The 171,300-sq.-ft. tower houses public amenities, dietary/dining, radiology, outpatient services, pharmacy, and the rapid-response lab. Patients enter the tower under a dramatic canopy that engages the glass conservatory vestibule. Once inside, visitors experience an atmosphere of comfort and care that showcases natural woods, colors, and lighting—promoting a strong, healing environment. Each inpatient floor has a 36-patient bed unit and is capable of expansion depending on the season and the need to mix private and semiprivate rooms.

The original ED walk-in entry was demolished and relocated adjacent to the existing emergency entrance. The current lab building was demolished for additional parking.

Once the existing pediatric and intensive care units are moved to the tower, renovation will begin inside the present facility. Expansion of the surgery department will provide support spaces and five new operating rooms for general and specialty surgeries. Renovation of the radiology department will provide space for a new MRI, radiology/fluoroscopy, computerized tomography, and ultrasound. Central sterile, distribution, the energy plant, and housekeeping will also be enlarged.