Project category: Addition (completed April 2003)

Chief administrator: C. Scott Bond, CEO, (360) 461-9480

Firm: Giffin Bolte Jurgens Architects, (503) 223-0992

Design team: Steve O’Shea, Designer; Herb Giffin, Medical Planner; Kimberly Ritter, Design and Coordination; Igo Jurgens, Project Manager; Robert Shanoski, Construction Documents (Giffin Bolte Jurgens Architects); Georgia Erdenberger, Interior Design (Czopek & Erdenberger)

Photography: Eckert & Eckert

Total building area (sq. ft.): 25,000

Construction cost/sq. ft.: $248

Total construction cost (excluding land): $6,200,000


A key part of an overall campus renewal, the Emergency Center occupies the ground floor of a three-level addition. It features 39 private treatment rooms, equipment for pediatric patients, four women’s health rooms, two major trauma rooms, six cardiac and stroke rooms, a mental health crisis unit, and a rooftop helipad. Flexibility has been built into the department by virtue of its layout, room designs, and equipment provisions. Computerized patient tracking and communication systems alleviate wait times and triage booths, and family waiting areas provide privacy and comfort.

The public entrance is visually separate from the ambulance approach, eliminating confusion. The department is divided into two sectors: acute/emergent care and less acute, or fast-track, care. Each has its own entrance but is linked and arranged so both have overflow capability and can interchange staff. The design features exam/treatment spaces that are equipped and sized for a variety of cases, so that surges can be more easily handled. These flexible rooms are at the interface of the sectors.

The exterior reflects the quiet modernism of the existing patient tower. At the ground level and entrance, new elements were introduced: glass and steel canopies, stone tiles, and expanses of windows. Reception and waiting spaces are extensions of a unified public concourse that links all parts of the hospital. They feature natural colors, comfortable furnishings, abundant daylight, views to nature, and commissioned artwork.