Project category: New construction & Remodel/Renovation (completed November 2006)

Chief administrator: Darrell Cutts, Chief Executive Officer, (770) 719-7060

Firm: Earl Swensson Associates, Inc., (615) 329-9445

Design team: Architect/Interior Designer, Earl Swensson Associates, Inc.; Project Manager, KLMK Group, LLC; MEP Engineer, Phoenix Design Group, Inc.; Civil Engineer, Integrated Science & Engineering; Structural Engineer, KSi/Structural Engineers; Construction Manager, Skanska USA Building, Inc.

Photography: ©2006 Rion Rizzo/Creative Sources Photography

Total building area (sq. ft.): 153,000

Construction cost/sq. ft.: $225

Total construction cost (excluding land): $34,500,000


Early planning for future expansion and adaptations during the design of the initial hospital allowed the expansion of Piedmont Fayette Hospital more than eight years later to occur with minimal disruption to operational services. Without skipping a beat in blending and theming, the additional spaces—which more than double the existing space—are integrated in such a way that it is almost impossible to detect where the existing facility ends and the new expansion begins.

Significant components of the expansion include a new outpatient entry and lobby; spaces for a new women’s program; the relocation and creation of new and enlarged dietary and dining spaces so that imaging, diagnostics, and preadmission testing could expand into the former dietary spaces; and the relocation of the intensive care unit, with the emergency department expanding into the former ICU space.

The expansion also allowed the establishment of two new Centers of Excellence: Coronary Care on the second floor and Women’s Health on the third. All services related to Coronary Care are aligned and on one floor, including physicians’ offices and services, diagnostics, invasive and noninvasive treatments and procedures, and coronary care patient rooms.

The expansion’s design was driven by the need to accommodate growth and to separate the inpatient and outpatient entries, yet maintain a connection between the two. This was accomplished with an extension of the existing pedestrian mall leading from the original inpatient entry to seamlessly connect to the new outpatient entry.