The design for the NewYork-Presbyterian David H. Koch Center is transforming ambulatory care and challenging conventional approaches to large, urban facilities.
Excerpted from Healthcare Design Magazine:
From its inception, the NewYork-Presbyterian David H. Koch Center in New York wasn’t going to resemble your typical healthcare project. First, there was the owner’s vision to redefine its ambulatory care services.
Then there was the size. At 734,000 gross square feet and 320 feet tall, the massive structure ran the risk of resembling any one of Manhattan’s large-scale office buildings.
Finally, based on the size and complexity, the owner decided to enlist three design firms to oversee specific aspects of the project, with HOK (New York) serving as architect and interior designer for the public spaces; Ballinger (Philadelphia) focusing on medical planning as well as the interior design of clinical spaces; and Pei Cobb Freed & Partners collaborating on the facade architecture and lobby design.
“The partnership brought the best out of each firm and led to a cohesive building,” said Joe Ienuso, group senior vice president of facilities and real estate at NewYork-Presbyterian.
To guide decision-making early on, the project team outlined six planning principles, including providing a patient-centric and operationally efficient setting for advanced ambulatory procedures, a coordinated network of care, and a technology- and equipment-rich setting.
Additionally, the team established a clarity of language on project goals with a visual design spectrum to help define the aesthetic terms, from modern and minimalist to contemporary and Zen, to better capture exactly what the client was seeking, said Amy Beckman, principal at HOK and senior project manager.
Measuring 40 feet high and 200 feet long, the lobby can be accessed by foot off York Avenue or via car at a drive-through drop-off underneath the building. “It was extremely important to the hospital that there be the ability to arrive at this building in a way that allows you to step off those congested streets into a much more controlled and protected environment,” Beckman said. “The drive-through was a commitment of a significant amount of space at the ground plane that otherwise could have been interior space.”
Inside the lobby, designers utilize a warm, neutral materials palette, including wood ceiling elements and stone columns and flooring materials, that’s repeated throughout the upper floors at varying scales—for example, granite flooring in the lobby is carried into waiting spaces (called sky lobbies) on the upper floors and the wood ceiling element in the lobby is repeated in some of the treatment spaces on the oncology floor.
“It’s unexpected and helps make those places feel special,” said Christine Vandover, design principal at HOK and senior project interior designer for public spaces.