Best of 2005 Awards

Bellevue Hospital Center Ambulatory Care Facility

Award of Merit: Health Care and Hospitals

The management of Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan was aware that New York City's aging baby boomer population demands an easily accessible, modern, and sophisticated medical campus. But the facilities at Bellevue, the country's oldest hospital, could not meet that demand.

The situation prompted the New York City Health and Hospitals Corp. and the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York to launch a $125 million modernization and expansion project, which was completed in the spring. The project team, led by New York-based Turner Construction, built a 207,000-sq.-ft. ambulatory care facility to accommodate nearly 500,000 patients annually, while integrating the original and new structures.

The project involved building a new, grander entrance to the entire complex. The team also renovated several floors of the existing hospital to refurbish interior spaces, increase the working area, and install technology upgrades for record keeping and patient monitoring equipment.

The team also developed a glazed-glass atrium, which uses glass from floor to ceiling, to connect the new facility to the existing hospital. The northern end of the 300-ft.-long atrium has three bridges to accommodate pedestrian flow between the ambulatory facility and the old complex, connecting the second, third, and fourth levels. The atrium's signature feature is a skylight supported by a series of sloped bowstring trusses 100 ft. above the ground floor.

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The Best of 2005 jurors were especially impressed with the link between the buildings and the way the new facility fits onto the tract. One juror said that the design "matches the modern facility to the older part," while another said "the façade worked well" despite "difficult siting conditions."

The connecting atrium presented structural challenges, because in the event of a natural disaster, such as an earthquake, the two buildings would likely sway at different rates. The trusses would need to not only support the old building but also act as a separator between the two structures.

The structural engineer, Leslie E. Robertson Associates of New York, designed a system that would allow the buildings to move up to 8 in. apart in any direction during a seismic event. The system incorporates Teflon bearing pads typically used in bridge construction.

The team also had concerns about extremely high pressure from the water table on the site, which complicated laying of the foundation. The team had to drill and anchor the foundation slab into the rock below, waterproofing it with a special membrane. In digging the foundation, project crews also discovered old utilities that they had to redirect without disrupting the hospital's operations.

Above ground, meanwhile, the high traffic volume on First Avenue and tight site complicated efforts to set the structural steel for a five-story-high concrete shear wall.

The jurors lauded the overall effort and the attention paid to the ultimate patient needs.

"Health care can be a restrictive building type," one juror said. "In this case, there is a nice interior space organized elegantly and in a creative manner."

Key Players

Owner: N.Y.C. Health and Hospitals Corp.

Developer: Dormitory Authority of the State of New York

Architect: Pei Cobb Freed & Partners

Renovation Architect: Guenther 5 Architects

Construction Manager: Turner Construction

Structural Engineer: Leslie E. Robertson Associates

M-E-P Engineer: Cosentini Associates

Structural Engineering Consultant: Lera Consulting; Superstructure Engineers + Architects

General Contractor - Renovation: Beys Contracting

Geotechnical: Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers