MUSC's new hospital
Futuristic health care
in a five-star setting
From
its graceful, nautical-inspired curves and exquisite blend of glass and
steel to its hotel-like amenities and breathtaking views of Charleston,
MUSC’s new hospital represents the future of health care.
Construction
continues on the new hospital, located on Courtenay Drive.Inside and out, every detail of the hospital reflects MUSC’s commitment to its patients and employees. As the future home of MUSC’s Heart & Vascular Center and Digestive Disease Center, the new hospital includes a four-story diagnostic and treatment building and a seven-story patient hospitality tower. Connected by a calming garden atrium, the state-of-the-art buildings feature 156 beds, an intensive care unit, operating rooms, laboratories, interventional radiology and endoscopy suites, and a specialized chest pain center.
The hospital is designed to accommodate the most modern medical equipment available and to offer patients and their families the highest quality of care in a setting that rivals the comfort and style of a fine hotel. In fact, when the hospital is complete about a year from now, it will more closely resemble a five-star hotel than a health care facility. Which is exactly the idea, says Greg Soyka, executive project manager for Charleston-based architectural firm LS3P Associates. “Hospitals don’t have to be cold and scary places,” Soyka said. “The theory is that if you provide a nicer experience for the patients and their families, the outcomes will be better.”
Distinguished by a gently curved curtain of glass that evokes blissful images of a billowy sail, the new hospital won praise from Charleston’s architectural review board, which is well known for its critical eye and fierce protection of the city’s storied skyline. “This is a beautiful building,” one board member said upon seeing the design. “It combines elegance with drama.”
But the hospital is also unique because of what can’t be seen. Its infrastructure, materials and design were subject to stringent new U.S. building codes, making it as strong as any modern building in the nation. “We are the first health care facility in the country subject to newer seismic and hurricane construction codes,” said Chris Malanuk, who oversees the $275 million project for MUSC.
Workers built a mock-up of the hospital for structural testing in Miami, where engineers used a gigantic airplane propeller to simulate roof-peeling winds and hydraulic jacks to mimic a steel-buckling earthquake. The mock-up withstood one simulated disaster after another before it was certified under the new building codes.
Building a new hospital in America amid rapidly changing health care practices and technology demands a flexible design. This is particularly true in the treatment of cardiovascular and digestive diseases—two of the many areas in which MUSC boasts nationally renowned physicians and some of the most advanced health care technology in the world.
The new hospital will benefit from the buildings’ forward-thinking construction, which is designed to accommodate expansions and renovations with little or no disruption to surrounding services.
“Even with the best planning in the world, we don’t know what the future will bring,” said Fred Crawford Jr., M.D., chairman of the Department of Surgery. The hospital’s operating room suite is to be named in Crawford’s honor.
Everything about the new hospital was designed and built to be flexible—from the layout of the rooms, to the infrastructure underground and in the ceilings, to the exterior siding. The hospital is sheathed in a variety of innovative materials, including brick panels that can be temporarily removed to allow for the easy installation of new technology. This will enable MUSC to remain atop the health care industry by continually acquiring the latest, most advanced diagnostic and surgical equipment.
To design a hospital that would best meet the needs of patients and their physicians, the hospital’s leadership turned to the experts: its own medical staff and internationally known hospital design firm NBBJ. The firm has designed award-winning architecture all over the world, including facilities for some of the country’s best hospitals. By working closely with local architects at LS3P and soliciting input from MUSC’s top strategic and clinical minds, NBBJ designed a hospital that soon will set a new standard for health care in the region.
Peter B. Cotton, M.D., nationally renowned director of MUSC’s Digestive Disease Center, was among the physicians who had a seat at the drafting table. Cotton said that having a role in the layout of one of the country’s most modern hospitals is a highlight of his career. “It’s been an extraordinary experience.”
Michael R. Gold, M.D., a highly respected cardiologist and director of MUSC’s Heart & Vascular Center, says the new hospital’s design streamlines services for patients and makes their hospital visits more efficient.
Each patient floor will include a receiving area for families, and the liberal use of glass walls will help orient visitors and make it easy to navigate the expansive facility. Large dayrooms will give family members a place to relax and reflect in an uplifting environment overlooking the Ashley River. Designers also took care to separate clinical areas from public areas.
And now, all of these plans are coming together. Just one year from completion, the hospital’s elegant facade already commands attention along Charleston’s western gateway. The community is now able to see the vision of the planners and architects.
“For so long out here we were doing the work in the ground and folks couldn’t see anything,” said project manager Steve Mann of BGKS, a joint venture among Brasfield & Gorrie, M.B. Kahn Construction Co. and Southern Management Group. “Then we started with the steel and the shell started going up and people started saying ‘Wow, what’s going on there?’ People’s enthusiasm has really started taking off.”
Editor’s note: The article is reprinted from MUSC checkup summer 2006, produced by MUSC Business Development and Marketing Services. For ongoing photos from the new hospital construction site, visit http://radinfo.musc.edu/~eugenem/gallery/v/EugeneAlbums/AroundWork/HospitalConstruction/.
Friday, Aug. 18, 2006
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