Lehigh Valley Hospital - Muhlenberg

Exterior.
Photograph © Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network.

Project details

• Project Name: Lehigh Valley Hospital - Muhlenberg
• Client: Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network
• Project Type: Healthcare/Hospital
• Principal Designer/s: Robert Venturi, FAIA and James Kolker, AIA
• Design Team: Eva Lew, Tim Kearney, Sun Kim, Noa Maliar, Denise Scott Brown, Nancy Rogo Trainer, Ming Tung, Keith Weibrecht, Carey Jackson Yonce
• Contractor/s: The Whiting-Turner Contracting Co.
• Associate: FreemanWhite, Inc., Executive Architect
• Date of commencement of project: March, 2002
• Date of completion of project: March, 2005
• Location of site: Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA
• Site Area: 9 acres
• Built-up Area: 265,000 sq ft (new), 100,000 sq. ft (renovation)
• Cost of Construction: $42,000,000

Words from VSBA

The Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network's new building on its Muhlenberg campus in Bethlehem, PA, revitalizes and expands the existing facility. After conducting master and organizational planning for the Hospital, we embarked on a $42 million renovation of 100,000 square feet and creation of a new 7-story, 265,000 sf patient tower and clinical care units.

The architect of record / health planner for the project worked closely with our firm, which performed site planning and design for the hospital's exterior and interior public spaces. Construction occurred without impacting the ongoing function of the hospital and site.

The expanded Hospital features 188 new private rooms for critical care, cardiac, and medical/surgical patients, an expansion of the Regional Heart Center, an intensive care unit, Diagnostic Care Center, new hospital entrance and lobby, a new cafeteria, retail space, and increased visitor and staff parking.

Entrance.
Photograph © Matt Wargo for VSBA.

Patient and clinical areas were designed with the patient and family in mind. An administrative staff member is located to provide personal contact upon arrival at each floor. Each unit includes a room for family members to stay overnight. Units are designed to help staff focus on patient care by distributing functions usually located at a central nurse station to staff areas at the entrance to the patient's room. Each room provides separate zones for patient, staff, and family. To improve flexibility and decrease patient relocations, the twelve-bed open-heart unit was designed to provide complete services from post-surgery to discharge.

VSBA's plan helped to reorient the hospital campus from the south to the north. An important aspect of this process was the iconic 48-foot blue "H" marking the hospital's new entry. The "H" -- at once a sign and an entry -- is integrated into a limestone arcade that welcomes visitors and supports the entrance canopy. Parking is available directly in front of the new building, with a clear and direct pedestrian pathway crossing the lot and leading through the base of the "H" into the hospital.

Entry arcade.
Photograph © Matt Wargo for VSBA.

The building's facade is red brick and limestone on the front and buff brick on the sides and back. An applied metal grid on the front represents the advanced technological structure and complements the more traditional brickwork. The combination of materials represents the "high touch and high tech" balance of health care that's the cornerstone of this hospital system.

Inside, visitors and patients are greeted with a large information desk, comfortable seating, and abundant natural light. An array of plasma screens forming a 19' by 12' wall helps to lend a bright and colorful focus to the generally recessive interior. The media wall allows information to be current, relevant, and easily changeable, and it highlights the use of technology as an integral component of the new building. It's visible from the parking lot through the "H" and can be seen from multiple vantage points inside and outside the building.

A non-denominational chapel is located in a convenient yet secluded location in the building. Green-painted walls provide a calm backdrop for contemplation, and inspirational quotes are bold in size but subtle in color. Natural light is borrowed from the lobby via high clerestory windows at the front of the room.

Lobby.
Photograph © Matt Wargo for VSBA.

Throughout the hospital, finishes and colors provide patterns, textures, and colors to stimulate interest and soothe while maximizing operational efficiency of the clinical and public spaces of the building. Large windows bring abundant natural light into patient rooms and other diagnostic, treatment, and public service areas where appropriate, including glazed floor-to-ceiling windows along the ground floor public concourse.

"This project enables our physicians and nurses to continue to provide the highest level of hospital care services and address the increasing demand for Lehigh Valley Hospital's high quality services by our Northampton County community and surrounding communities," said Elliot J. Sussman, M.D., Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network's president and CEO.

Credits

• Text and Photographs, Courtesy of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, Inc