Palo Alto Medical Foundation San Carlos Center: 2015 BoY Winner for Large Healthcare
With a whopping 1,500 healthcare projects completed during the last decade, this firm knows how to do large, in this case 192,000 square feet, all focused on well-being. “It was important to the client, Sutter Health, to be a new gateway to the community,” senior associate Josie Briggs says. That connection starts outside, where the sandstone and plaster facade and the courtyard gardens recall the Mission style typical of the area.
“Our design links people to nature for moments of respite, healing, and improved cognition,” Briggs notes. Consider the walkway connecting the lobby to the clinical building. Hugging one glass wall is a long bench in live-edge walnut. Opposite, high up, a bronze-painted aluminum canopy’s CNC-cut leaf pattern casts shadows on the floor’s end-grain redwood. “It’s like walking through a grove of trees,” she adds.
She took additional measures to ensure patient comfort. The radiology waiting area, for instance, prioritizes privacy. Not only do the sofas have high backs and arms, but fabric panels are hung between the seating groups. “If patients feel uncomfortable sitting in a robe or are nauseous, they’re not too exposed yet still supervised,” she explains. Caring gestures continue even in the MRI room, where color-changing lights help to calm and distract.
Project Team: Dale Alberda; Shannon Coughlin; Richard Dallam; Katie Davis; Jay Halleran; Wayne Hiranaka; Ashlee Washington; Diane Lasko; Pete Lorimer; Craig Matheny; Anna McCune; Robert Murray; Sarah Oliver; Larry Parrett; Jesse Prince; Celeste Robinette; Tara Schneider; Rysia Suchecka; Lynne Shira; Christina Yates.