New health pavilion completes on the Health Education Campus at Case Western Reserve University

The recently completed Sheila and Eric Samson Pavilion on the Health Education Campus at Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic combines the education of students from medical, nursing, and dental schools under one roof.

Key elements of each school are arranged around a large internal courtyard and are designed to both maintain their own identity, and also share a series of spaces with the other schools. The different faculties share teaching spaces, admin areas, lecture halls, recreational areas, technical teaching facilities, storage, cafeterias, and personnel support.

The building’s 80-foot-high central Delos M. Cosgrove courtyard acts as the pavilion’s social heart. It is naturally lit through linear skylights and furnished with oak tables, benches, and planters. The furniture, as well as a series of Ficus Nitida trees and water gardens at the north and south of the courtyard, are all easily reconfigurable to allow the courtyard to host a wide range of events.

The region’s heavy snowfalls were taken into consideration when designing the roof of the courtyard. The roof trusses are pitched to allow the snow to naturally slide off the glass and onto the solid infill roof around the courtyard, where it will melt into the channels along each side of the roof.

The pavilion’s goal is to allow students from the dental, nursing, and medical schools to learn together and collaborate using shared spaces and the latest digital technology, which includes virtual and mixed-reality programs.

Rural hospitals present unique opportunities and challenges for healthcare facility operators. Oftentimes, the infrastructure and building systems have not been updated for years and require significant improvements in order to meet today’s modern medical demands. Additionally, as these smaller, more remote hospitals are acquired by larger regional and national healthcare systems, the first step by new ownership is often to update and rehabilitate the building. But how can this be done thoughtfully, economically, and efficiently in ways that allow the engineering and facility staff to adapt to the changes? And how can the updates accurately reflect the specific needs of rural communities and the afflictions with which these areas most commonly face?

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Wheeler Kearns Architects completes Howard Brown Health’s Broadway Youth Center in Chicago

The new facility will provide medical and social service programs to LGBTQI+ youth.

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