Last month, Columbia University’s College of Dental Medicine in New York debuted on the fifth floor of its Vanderbilt Clinic a 15,000-sf Center for Precision Dental Medicine, a loft-like facility that is part of a masterplan to restructure the institution’s dental education, research and practice.
The new Center—designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners in collaboration with the project’s AOR and Executive Architect Jeffrey Berman—is viewed as a prototype for the dental school’s collaborative and technology-driven curriculum, and as a model for subsequent renovations and redesigns at Vanderbilt Clinic.
“This is the beginning of a new wave of dental medicine,” proclaims Lee Goldman, MD, Dean of the Facilities of Health Sciences and Medicine and CEO of Columbia’s Medical Center.
Christian Stohler, DMD, DrMedDent, Dean of Columbia’s College of Dental Medicine and a Senior Vice President of the Medical Center, says the goal of the restructuring, in part, is to add value to the dental medicine curriculum by aligning it more closely to the Medical Center.
The Center for Precision Dental Medicine is organized into two wings of practice areas, each with three “neighborhoods” that encompass eight dental chairs, faculty workstations, and digital design and fabrication areas for 3D printing of dental prosthesis.
Each of the neighborhoods includes a computer screen that allows professors to observe the students they are supervising. The 48 dental chairs, perched atop raised floors, are tricked out with sensors that are being used to collect patient data that allow the medical staff and students to identify commonalities in order to tailor oral care to the surrounding population. (The dental school, located on the university’s Washington Heights campus, provides dentistry services to local residents.)
The sensors “let Columbia to get to the bottom of the community’s wellness issues,” says Christina Nambiar, a Project Architect with Pei Cobb.
The Building Team paid close attention to patient access and comfort. The indirect lighting was designed to minimize glare. And the operatories allow for a full spectrum of procedures, barrier-free access for people with physical disabilities, and ergonomic comfort for both patients and practitioners.
The partitions that separate the procedure spaces include translucent screens that provide patient privacy and generous circulation aisles.
Curvilinear and translucent partiitions, supplied by Planmeca/Triangle, provide transparency and patient privacy. Image: Jeff Goldberg
“The idea was to make the facility as accessible as possible,” explains Ian Bader of Pei Cobb, this project’s Lead Design Architect.
The building is 89 years old, so virtually all of the fifth floor’s systems were replaced during the renovation, says Bader. These include an RFID system tracking all operations, procedures and supplies; and central air handling units for each wing with variable air volume supply fans with variable frequency drive for overhead air distribution and 100% outdoor air airside economizer.
The ventilation system was designed with a computational fluid dynamic model for airborne infection control. IT, electrical, compressed air and vacuum system and plumbing are distributed under a raised floor. A building management system controls lighting and shades.
Nambiar says the floor and ceiling materials were supplied by the same vendor, Lidner. And throughout the Center there’s an “extensive use or Corian,” says Bader.
Other Building Team members included Cosentini Associates (MEPS), Severud Associates Consulting Engineering (SE), One Lux Studio (lighting designer), Planmeca/Triangle’s Montreal office (operatory manufacturer), and Planmeca’s Helsinki office (dental chairs).
Related Stories
| May 5, 2011
Hospitals launch quiet campaigns to drown out noise of modern medicine
Worldwide, sound levels inside hospitals average 72 decibels during the day and 60 decibels at night, which far exceeds the standard of 40 decibels or less, set by the World Health Organization. The culprit: modern medicine. In response, hospitals throughout Illinois and the U.S. are launching "quiet campaigns" that include eliminating intercom paging, replacing metal trash cans, installing sound-absorbing flooring and paneling, and dimming lights at night to remind staff to keep their voices down.
| Apr 14, 2011
USGBC debuts LEED for Healthcare
The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) introduces its latest green building rating system, LEED for Healthcare. The rating system guides the design and construction of both new buildings and major renovations of existing buildings, and can be applied to inpatient, outpatient and licensed long-term care facilities, medical offices, assisted living facilities and medical education and research centers.
| Apr 13, 2011
Virginia hospital’s prescription for green construction: LEED Gold
Rockingham Memorial Hospital in Harrisonburg, Va., is the commonwealth’s first inpatient healthcare facility to earn LEED Gold. The 630,000-sf facility was designed by Earl Swensson Associates, with commissioning consultant SSRCx, both of Nashville.
| Apr 12, 2011
Mental hospital in Boston redeveloped as healthcare complex
An abandoned state mental health facility in Boston’s prestigious Longwood Medical Area is being transformed into the Mass Mental Health Center, a four-building mixed-use complex that includes a mental health day hospital, a clinical and office building, a medical research facility for Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and a residential facility.
| Mar 17, 2011
Perkins Eastman launches The Green House prototype design package
Design and architecture firm Perkins Eastman is pleased to join The Green House project and NCB Capital Impact in announcing the launch of The Green House Prototype Design Package. The Prototype will help providers develop small home senior living communities with greater efficiency and cost savings—all to the standards of care developed by The Green House project.
| Mar 14, 2011
Renowned sustainable architect Charles D. Knight to lead Cannon Design’s Phoenix office
Cannon Design is pleased to announce that Charles D. Knight, AIA, CID, LEED AP, has joined the firm as principal. Knight will serve as the leader of the Phoenix office with a focus on advancing the firm’s healthcare practice. Knight brings over 25 years of experience and is an internationally recognized architect who has won numerous awards for his unique contributions to the sustainable and humanistic design of healthcare facilities.
| Mar 11, 2011
Renovation energizes retirement community in Massachusetts
The 12-year-old Edgewood Retirement Community in Andover, Mass., underwent a major 40,000-sf expansion and renovation that added 60 patient care beds in the long-term care unit, a new 17,000-sf, 40-bed cognitive impairment unit, and an 80-seat informal dining bistro.
| Mar 11, 2011
Research facility added to Texas Medical Center
Situated on the Texas Medical Center’s North Campus in Houston, the new Methodist Hospital Research Institute is a 12-story, 440,000-sf facility dedicated to translational research. Designed by New York City-based Kohn Pedersen Fox, with healthcare, science, and technology firm WHR Architects, Houston, the building has open, flexible labs, offices, and amenities for use by 90 principal investigators and 800 post-doc trainees and staff.