Broadlawns Medical Center - Sands Vertical Expansion

Shive-Hattery, Inc

Recognitions: 2021 People's Choice Award

Project Description

The Sands Vertical Expansion has redefined Broadlawns Medical Center’s image and capacity to serve the Polk County area. Three new inpatient units provide the much-needed space to match the level of care provided, all while allowing the hospital to achieve their vision to improve privacy, clinical outcomes, and cultural sensitivity. Prior to this expansion, Broadlawns was one of the few hospitals in Iowa that still had semi-private inpatient rooms. With a new third floor, the project provides a significant shift to all private rooms, and new state-of-the-art space to care for medical surgical, intensive care, and family birthing patients. Shive-Hattery worked closely with Broadlawns medical staff and midwives to support both models for patient care in the Family Birthing Center, in adaptable rooms designed to support labor, delivery, recovery, and post-partum care. Biophilic wayfinding elements permeate throughout the floor, supporting the mood and feeling of well-being for patients and staff. Generous daylighting and visibility to the outdoors also contribute to a healthy environment and offer orientation cues for intuitive circulation around the floor. In addition to adding an entire floor to Polk County’s public hospital, a dynamic new inpatient entrance provides a gateway to the 42,000 SF expansion, while the metal panel exterior skin of subtle variations exhibits a contemporary image. The new floor has abundant glazing with sweeping views of the nearby urban forest for patient rooms, public circulation, and staff work areas. The vertical expansion includes a new interstitial floor between the existing and new floors where new mechanical and electrical systems were able to be routed without impacting the fully operational inpatient and surgical departments directly below. Primarily a functional element, the interstitial space also enhances the vertical presence of the hospital from Hickman Road, a major thoroughfare in town.