Environetics Completes Adaptive Reuse Ambulatory Care Center Project in Southern New Jersey

Environetics has completed a 55,000-square-foot ambulatory care center for one of Southern New Jersey’s leading healthcare providers, Lourdes Health System. The adaptive reuse of a vacant supermarket to LourdesCare was completed after a rapid design/build exercise that took 11 months from the start of design through completion of construction. The facility is located in Cherry Hill, N.J.

Environetics provided architecture, interior design, structural engineering and mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineering services to the project. The outpatient care center was designed to support Lourdes Health System in achieving its overarching goals of improving patients’ access to health services, reducing the cost of care and delivering seamless and integrated healthcare.

The facility is home to Lourdes Cardiology Services and other nationally recognized physician specialists, including: cardiac surgeons, cardiologists, orthopedic surgeons, bariatric surgeons, physical medicine rehabilitation specialists, podiatrists, rheumatologists, sports medicine specialists and vascular surgeons. Other services include cardiac testing, cardiac rehabilitation, heart failure care, lab services, physical therapy, wellness services and general radiology.

“Healthcare environments designed today must be able to evolve with the changes in healthcare delivery and be able to facilitate the management of patients’ wellness through coordinated continuum of care,” said Fletcher H. MacNeill, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP, Principal in the Healthcare Practice at Environetics. “The LourdesCare facility is a model of efficient, convenient one-stop shopping for healthcare services, and we expect this type of healthcare facility to become increasingly more effective as healthcare reform takes shape.”

Every design detail is meant to support Lourdes Health System’s goals. Design highlights include:

Flexible Design: For many of the same reasons that “the big box” is suitable for a supermarket, it lends itself well to healthcare – expansive structural bays, high floor-to-structure clearances and ample parking. The space also allows for flexibility and given the nature of change in the healthcare industry, flexibility is critical. The new facility is designed to allow for growth and contraction of departments over time via interchangeability of rooms, standardized planning modules and unifying circulation systems.

Enhanced Wayfinding: The interior was designed to orient all of the major waiting rooms along a single concourse that faces the street and main entry drive. This creates a continuous public space that is easily understood by a first-time visitor to the facility. Each practice is identified with a diagonal marker wall, or “marquee wall”, along the curve to further enhance wayfinding. Additionally, all check-in and checkout spaces are treated the same so patients can quickly become orientated to the process.

Arching Fin: Located at a high-visibility intersection, passersby look down at the building. The Environetics team embraced this as a design opportunity and created a gently arching fin wall that brought attention to the main entry and became a brand identity element for Lourdes Health System while screening the mechanical units on the roof.

Expansive Glass Storefront: The expansive glass storefront allows drivers and pedestrians on Brace Road to “window-shop” for healthcare services. Just through the front doors, the fin wall from the exterior leads the visitor into the main entry and transitions to a gently curving soffit that defines the circulation and the waiting spaces. The concourse is designed to be full of light, with continuous glazing and a wood canopy that creates cover outside while helping create a visual transition from outside to in.

The total cost of the project was $14 million. The project was financed and led by Rosewood Real Estate Enterprises and completed with a design-build approach with services from Environetics, consulting architects Alberto & Associates and contractors The Norwood Company.

Alberto & Associates was engaged at the request of Lourdes Health System to work directly with the clinical groups in departmental planning, interior space programming, medical equipment layouts and preparation of detailed construction documents for the interior fitout. Alberto & Associates, having worked on numerous projects with the Lourdes Health System, coordinated with Environetics to assure that the design concept was maintained and that a seamless process was adhered to within a very aggressive schedule.

The design/build model allowed for an efficient and effective cost management process that involved daily collaboration between Environetics, Alberto & Associates and The Norwood Company from the start of planning through the completion of construction.

The Environetics team included Architects Fletcher MacNeill, William Westhafer and Derek Smythe; Interior Designer Heather Fayocavitz; Structural Engineers Steve Devine and Ryan Lee and MEP Engineers Michael Sidlo, Jeffrey Smith, Nayan Patel and Jeff Ohlinger.