Sigurd Ackerman MD Center for Evaluation and Admissions
Richard Turlington Architects created this new 12,000 sf building for Silver Hill Hospital’s admissions facility. For both patients and family members, this building serves as the physical threshold of the campus and has a critical role in setting the 1st impression for this internationally renowned facility. To heighten the wellness opportunity, the entry sequence into the building we created an exterior “cloister-like” courtyard that was surrounded by building and a natural fieldstone wall to form a static square space. At the center of this courtyard sits a beautiful 4’ diameter stone grinding wheel that was common to the mills along the Silver Mine River. Our wheel is retrofitted to create a gently flowing fountain intended to add a soft burbling noise into a English garden that will surround stressed out patients with the fragrance of lilac and juniper. Along the northern edge of this courtyard is a colonnaded trellised entry walkway with bluestone, painted Doric columns, clear finished fir ceiling and copper rain chains. This walking experience creates a 30 second break between the new parking area and the actual front door into the building. This gap in time is intended to create a break between the world the patients came from and into a space of hope for recovery.
The architectural Cottage style is sympathetic to neighborhood, it has an informal human scale and it meets the ground nicely with a stone foundation. The exterior material palette uses cedar shingles, high performance windows and French doors, steep roofs with standing seam copper roofing in selected areas and traditional cottage style siding details. The overall appearance is low key and welcoming with lots of windows to allow daylight to pour into all 8 sides of the building.
The interior spaces and material pallet continue to holistically reinforce an overall effort to heighten the wellness aspects of this building. Programmatically speaking, we were able to consolidate spaces by using exam/interview rooms that make the building efficient with as small a footprint as possible. We have included a family resource center that also doubles as a large conference room for staff. The surfaces incorporate cherry hardwood flooring, painted wainscoting with a cherry cap, Alder interior doors, cherry cabinetry in select areas and classic painted trimming around the doors and windows. The furnishings include wool area rugs, colorful leathers, vivid fabrics and oil rubbed bronze appointments like the receptacle covers and faucets.
The finished aesthetic and spatial experience underscores the Hospital’s respect to its patients who in turn start to treat themselves with more self-worth so the healing process can begin.