Baptist Health Care’s new $650 million healthcare complex opened recently in Pensacola, Fla. Featuring a 10-story, 268-bed hospital, the project “represents the single-largest investment in the healthcare history of northwest Florida,” said Gresham Smith project executive Robert “Skip” Yauger, AIA, LEED AP.
The 602,000-sf Baptist Hospital is equipped with a Level II trauma center that provides 61 exam rooms and three triage areas. Other services include critical care areas, a mother-baby unit, surgery department with 25 procedure and operating rooms, specialty cardiac care treatment and procedure rooms. The building was designed with extra space for future expansion.
The project includes a six-story, 178-000 sf medical services building, the Bear Family Foundation Health Center. This facility houses multi-specialty services including oncology, women’s health, outpatient imaging, bariatrics, and cardiology. It also includes a conference center that will be used for public events, health education, and community outreach. A separate facility, a 72-bed behavioral health unit brings much needed behavioral health services to the community.
“This project to replace our 73-year-old legacy campus with a more modern, technologically advanced and accessible location was a generational opportunity for us,” says Baptist Health Care president and CEO Mark Faulkner. “This campus will raise the bar for health care experiences, safety, quality, and efficiency for generations to come.”
The 57-acre campus is organized around a park-like town square featuring groves of heritage oak trees. Amenities include walking paths, respite areas, and outdoor event spaces. The exterior of each building pays homage to the historical character of Pensacola’s local buildings and celebrates the natural surroundings of the beach community. Warm terracotta and shades of sandy white contrast to mark building entrances. Large spans of glass flood the interior with natural light.
The buildings were designed to be resilient to hurricanes. Durable materials, including precast concrete panels and impact glazing that surpass code minimum, and a hardened building structure and envelope, will withstand hurricane force winds and rain. Redundant electrical supplies and potable water systems will enable the hospital to operate off-grid during an emergency.
The interior of each building takes cues from the exterior design, using handcrafted materials, such as wood, bronze, and terrazzo, to create a warm, welcoming environment. Drawing inspiration from the oaks in the town square, large scale light fixtures reference sunlight streaming through Spanish moss. Planters and full-height windows bring the outdoors inside.
To aid with wayfinding, every patient destination on the first floor is accessible from the primary public concourse, while staff and materials circulation is separated in a secondary circulation system. Reminiscent of light reflecting over the ocean at sunrise or sunset, the color palette shifts colors at each level of the building. Transparent and translucent glass reduce patient anxiety at clinical entries, which are denoted by accent lighting, wood ceiling treatments and large-scale graphics. Lightwells bring daylight deep into the building’s core.
Owner: Baptist Health Care
Architect, MEP engineer, structural engineer: Gresham Smith
General contractor/construction manager: Brasfield & Gorrie
Related Stories
| Nov 27, 2013
Exclusive survey: Revenues increased at nearly half of AEC firms in 2013
Forty-six percent of the respondents to an exclusive BD+C survey of AEC professionals reported that revenues had increased this year compared to 2012, with another 24.2% saying cash flow had stayed the same.
| Nov 27, 2013
Wonder walls: 13 choices for the building envelope
BD+C editors present a roundup of the latest technologies and applications in exterior wall systems, from a tapered metal wall installation in Oklahoma to a textured precast concrete solution in North Carolina.
| Nov 27, 2013
LEED for Healthcare offers new paths to green
LEED for Healthcare debuted in spring 2011, and certifications are now beginning to roll in. They include the new Puyallup (Wash.) Medical Center and the W.H. and Elaine McCarty South Tower at Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas in Austin.
| Nov 26, 2013
Construction costs rise for 22nd straight month in November
Construction costs in North America rose for the 22nd consecutive month in November as labor costs continued to increase, amid growing industry concern over the tight availability of skilled workers.
| Nov 25, 2013
Building Teams need to help owners avoid 'operational stray'
"Operational stray" occurs when a building’s MEP systems don’t work the way they should. Even the most well-designed and constructed building can stray from perfection—and that can cost the owner a ton in unnecessary utility costs. But help is on the way.
| Nov 19, 2013
Pediatric design in an adult hospital setting
Freestanding pediatric facilities have operational and physical characteristics that differ from those of adult facilities.
| Nov 19, 2013
Top 10 green building products for 2014
Assa Abloy's power-over-ethernet access-control locks and Schüco's retrofit façade system are among the products to make BuildingGreen Inc.'s annual Top-10 Green Building Products list.
| Nov 18, 2013
6 checkpoints when designing a pediatric healthcare unit
As more time and money is devoted to neonatal and pediatric research, evidence-based design is playing an increasingly crucial role in the development of healthcare facilities for children. Here are six important factors AEC firms should consider when designing pediatric healthcare facilities.
| Nov 15, 2013
Greenbuild 2013 Report - BD+C Exclusive
The BD+C editorial team brings you this special report on the latest green building trends across nine key market sectors.
| Nov 15, 2013
Pedia-Pod: A state-of-the-art pediatric building module
This demonstration pediatric treatment building module is “kid-friendly,” offering a unique and cheerful environment where a child can feel most comfortable.