Case Study

AdventHealth Hospital for Women Comprehensive Women’s Health Care for Every Stage of Life

Orlando, Florida, USA

The Challenge

AdventHealth Hospital for Women’s gift to the women in the Central Florida community is a comprehensive, full spectrum hospital to provide advanced medical care solely to them. HKS worked in association with Stantec to design a hospital that embraces women at every stage of their lives.

The Design Solution

AdventHealth Hospital for Women, water became a powerful analogy of the essential role of women in our lives and our society – and the major concept informing the design. From the project’s inception, the client challenged the team to reinvent the patient experience; interior spaces are designed to strip away the institutional patina from the typical hospital experience; all patient and family spaces are finished with high-touch materials inspired by water and informed by strategies employed by the hospitality sector. Muted colors, soft lighting and spatial flow lend a luxurious feel to spaces already well-established for healing. Rising subtly from a reflecting pool at its leading edge, water conceptually grounds the project, evidenced in the flowing and reflective exterior articulation. The iconic tower firmly marks the sky and reinforces the notion of flow, the curtain wall is only articulated by horizontal elements: precast bands, metal ribbons, sunshades and mullions. From the glazed porte cochere, through the double-height, serenely illuminated main lobby, the water theme is expressed in the interior via the fluid main promenade and reinforced through materiality, lighting, art and spatial expansion and contraction. Large windows in the patient rooms offer expansive views to the exterior, bright finishes and furnishings, and warm tones serve to create spaces conducive for healing and calm for both patients and families.

The lighted halo top reaches for transcendence in a feminine way, as a complementary counterpart to the adjacent main hospital building. It represents the culmination of a vision for holistic women’s health care at AdventHealth Hospital for Women’s flagship campus. 

The Design Impact

The AdventHealth Hospital for Women attracts world-class physicians with an innovative wellness and prevention platform that provides women the tools to live longer, healthier lives.

Project Features

  • 400,000 square feet (37,161 sm)
  • 12 stories
  • 330 beds
  • 72 mother/baby rooms
  • Three-level NICU
  • 14 labor and delivery suites
  • Seeking LEED certification

Awards

  • 2016 Excellence in Design Award (Association of Builders and Contractors, Central Florida Chapter)
  • 2016 Honor Award, Built (AIA Orlando Chapter)
  • 2016 Merit Award of Excellence, New York (AIA Florida/Caribbean Chapter)
  • 2016 Healthcare Design Showcase, Honorable mention
  • 2014 Eagle Award (Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc. Central Florida Chapter EIC Awards)
  • 2013 Best Community Impact/Medical (Orlando Business Journal)

Research and medicine have only recently begun to recognize the differences be-tween men and women, down to the cellular level. We are committed to being an industry leader by working to better understand these differences through research and treatment, and by delivering indivi

Chief medical officer and executive medical director of Women’s Health at AdventHealth Hospital for Women