Houston, Texas — WHR Architects has been selected to design a major new expansion for Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, N.J. WHR Architects was the top choice among some of the most experienced and respected medical architecture firms nationally because of its direct and comprehensive approach to addressing complex site, programmatic and structural issues for Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital’s new South Building Overbuild project.
“The opportunity to work with Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital on this challenging project spurred us to explore the possibilities with several different solutions,” said Charles Griffin, AIA, FACHA, EDAC, WHR’s principal-in-charge for the project. “We believed that our experience delivering complex healthcare projects in dense urban environments, as well as our long commitment to evidence and knowledge-based design would be of great value to the hospital. We are very pleased to be part of their team.”
The hospital expansion will consist of three levels of additional bed units, new surgery units, public spaces, as well as a major new southern entry for the hospital. Due to dense urban constraints, the expansion is being proposed as an overbuild project, which, owing to the fact that it will hover over existing buildings, can pose considerable challenges in terms of how it connects to the overall fabric of the existing hospital campus and the surrounding urban setting.
By proposing an array of viable, cost-effective and exciting design possibilities, WHR Architects won the confidence of Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital leadership. “We came to them not with an absolute solution,” says Tushar Gupta, AIA, WHR principal and senior project designer, “but with ideas.”
Those ideas consisted of comprehensive ways of dealing with construction challenges, as well as creating what WHR calls “holistic, healing and patient-centered environments.” Moreover, WHR’s urban approach to the design enhances the curb appeal on the facing street and conceives of the project as a new portal into the existing campus.
Among WHR’s recent and current healthcare projects are a new expansion hospital for Stamford hospital in Stamford, Conn., the Louis and Peaches Owen Heart Hospital at Trinity Mother Frances Hospital in Tyler, Texas, Children’s Medical Center of Dallas, Texas and Rex UNC Healthcare Heart & Vascular Hospital in North Carolina.
