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Best of 2006 Awards
Cornell-Weill Medical College Ambulatory Care and Medical Education Building
AWARD OF MERIT: Health Care and Hospitals
 Construction of the first clinical facility to open in the 108-year history of Cornell
University’s Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College finished this fall, and the $230 million facility is set to open to its first patients at the end of the year after an extensive medical equipment fit-out.
The college’s Ambulatory Care and Medical Education Building will serve as the centerpiece for Cornell’s New York City facilities. Funded through private donations, the new center aims to fulfill the institution’s triple mission of research, teaching, and patient care by consolidating various clinical practices under one roof and situating medical college students and physician-scientists closer to clinical care.
The medical complex consists of two structures. One is a 15-story building with another three below-grade floors at York Avenue and 70th Street housing out-patient treatment, teaching, and research.
The other is a two-story materials handling building that fronts East 69th Street and also has a below-grade floor.
The site had housed an occupied six-story apartment building, part of a one-story garage, and a parking lot. The project team had to help coordinate the tenant relocations, decommission the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems, and demolish the structures.
“They dealt with some interesting challenges,” one juror said.
With various hospitals and residential neighbors close by, the project team had to carefully monitor the excavation of 60-ton rock through the use of sophisticated seismic equipment. The 45-ft.-deep excavation opened the way for a foundation of spread and continuous footings, which supports the structural steel, metal deck, and concrete fill superstructure.
New York-based Polshek Partnership and Philadelphia-based Ballinger jointly designed the 340,000-sq.-ft. building, which has a nearly transparent glass façade to the north and east. The sloping, fritted glass curtain wall on those façades changes patterns both horizontally and vertically but also uses its reflective qualities to blend into the gothic-style architecture of the neighborhood.
The curtain wall’s odd angles also form a jagged perimeter, which dictated uneven floor plate sizes and set the structural steel framing and concrete slab edges in different places on every floor.
The building’s other two sides have face brick with concrete block backup, spanning ribbon windows, and weathered zinc column covers.
“It was elegant, innovative,” a juror said.
The interior fit-out includes high-end finishes such as stone-clad walls, porcelain tile, and architectural glass, as well as amenities that include reflective pools, cascading water, and valet parking.
Key Players
Owner: Cornell University Weill Medical College
Architect: Polshek Partnership; Ballinger
Construction Manager: Bovis Lend Lease
Structural Engineer: Severud Associates Consulting Engineers
Geotechnical Engineer: Langan Engineering and Environmental Services
Excavation: Civetta-Cousins
M-E-P Engineer: Atkinson, Koven & Feinberg
Curtain Wall Consultant: R.A. Heintges Consultants
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