Profile

Bellevue Hospital Center
Ambulatory Care Facility 

New York, New York
Completed 2005

New facility, renovation and new main entrance
 

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The new Ambulatory Care Facility, together with renovated medical spaces within the existing Bellevue Hospital complex, has radically transformed a venerable New York City institution into an advanced medical campus.

In addition to accommodating an essential medical function, the new building serves as the main entrance for the entire hospital complex, reintroducing the architecture of the McKim, Mead and White–designed historic buildings to the experience of the 10,000 daily visitors.

The primary design challenge has been the transformation of close physical proximity between existing and new buildings into a spatial and symbolic generosity. In bringing together old and new, the glazed atrium has become the emblematic heart of Bellevue.

Visitors enter beneath a sheltering overhang and, passing through transparent glass entrances, find an axial view of the original monumental entrance portal. Wide steps and ramp provide access to the granite-floored, 90-foot-high atrium space, the most striking feature of which is the powerful brick wall rising through a sloped skylight to its pedimented culmination. The conjunction of the sweeping, curved balconies of the new building and the handsome historic brickwork is celebrated in natural light.

The Ambulatory Care Building provides a full range of clinical functions. Public waiting areas are arrayed along curved gallerias on upper floors. Strategically placed reception units facilitate public interface with the different clinical modules. The division of the floor plate in three distinct zones — public, service and clinical/examination — optimizes programmatic flexibility and promotes efficiency.

The completion of this ambitious project is a significant milestone in the storied history of Bellevue Hospital.

Major Components

New main entrance to hospital campus; 210,000 s/f new Ambulatory Care Facility; renovation of 80,000 s/f inpatient facility, 45,000 s/f Critical Care Unit

Awards

Pei Cobb Freed & Partners services

Full Architectural and Interior Design services for new building. Design supervision and administrative support for Intensive Care Unit Renovation. Full Architectural Services for Medical/Surgical Bed Renovation.

Structural

Leslie E. Robertson Associates, New York, NY

Mechanical / Electrical / Plumbing / Lighting

Cosentini Associates, New York, NY

Intensive Care Unit Planning and Architectural Services

Guenther 5 Architects, New York, NY

Hospital Planning and Programming

MPRI — Medical Planning Research International, Pelham, NY

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