CLEVELAND – Two major University Hospitals Vision 2010 building projects have been honored with prestigious architecture awards. The UH Ahuja Medical Center has received the Modern Healthcare Design Award and the UH Cancer Hospital has been recognized with the American Architecture Award by the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.
The UH Ahuja Medical Center, a $230 million facility being built in phases at the Chagrin Highlands campus in Beachwood, Ohio, is one of six healthcare facilities nationwide to receive the Modern Healthcare Design Award. It is the only recipient in the unbuilt category and received an Honorable Mention.
Announced in the September 22, 2008 issue of Modern Healthcare, the annual award program recognizes excellence in the design and planning of new and remodeled facilities. Judges call the building “elegant” and praise how the extensive landscaping softens the parking areas and how the main windows look out over the property’s lakes and wetlands.
Developed by national firms HKS, Inc. and Array Healthcare Facilities Solutions the new medical center is initially being built as a 144-bed hospital on a 53-acre campus and is scheduled to be completed in December 2010. Second and third phases will be undertaken as patient volumes grow. Ultimately, the hospital will include approximately 600 beds.
The Cancer Hospital, under construction on the University Hospitals Case Medical Center campus in Cleveland’s University Circle, was among 66 distinguished buildings selected from a large pool of submissions to be recognized with the American Architecture Award by Chicago Athenaeum. The annual design competition honors and celebrates the most outstanding accomplishments for architecture.
Designed by Cannon Design, and associate architect Array Healthcare Facilities Solutions, the free-standing 150 bed Cancer Hospital will house the UH Ireland Cancer Center and is scheduled to be completed in December 2010. The $229 million state-of-the-art facility will offer cancer diagnostics, outpatient and inpatient treatment, surgery, clinical trials, professional education and research. Designed to optimize patient care, the 375,000-square-foot facility will triple the square footage that cancer services currently encompass in seven different locations at University Hospitals Case Medical Center.
The Ahuja Medical Center and Cancer Hospital are major components of UH’s $1.2 billion Vision 2010 strategic plan. Other Vision 2010 projects are the Center for Emergency Medicine at UH Case Medical Center and the Quentin & Elisabeth Alexander Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital. Vision 2010 also includes ambulatory centers in Twinsburg and Concord, and several expansions at UH community hospitals as well as a new Electronic Medical Record system.