Foster + Partners, CannonDesign unveil design for Mayo Clinic campus expansion in Rochester, Minn.

A redesign of the Mayo Clinic’s downtown campus in Rochester, Minn., centers around two new clinical high-rise buildings. The two nine-story structures will reach a height of 221 feet, with the potential to expand to 420 feet. Part of a multiyear strategic initiative, the two towers feature a skybridge that horizontally links them with the existing Gonda Building, allowing staff to traverse the site efficiently.

The skybridge is an integral part of a double-height social amenity level that will provide patients and loved ones with space to rest, connect, and recharge. This level will be clearly visible on the building’s façade, making it easy to locate from any part of the campus.

The design creates a new central point of arrival, with the north and south drop-offs converging at a unified main entrance. The existing Gonda Lobby will extend into the new facilities, simplifying wayfinding and creating a welcoming environment from the moment of arrival.

The design creates adjacencies in dynamic care “neighborhoods” that will streamline the patient experience. These community-centered neighborhoods will fuse services around patient needs and specific diseases, creating continuous care environments that will serve as patients’ homes while at the clinic.

Double-height winter gardens will be located at the center of care neighborhoods, uniting them, and providing light-filled spaces with spectacular views of the city. The atriums are both social and functional, providing opportunities for new forms of respite and healing or collaboration and care.

A universal grid along with generous floor-to-floor heights will allow clinical spaces to change over time and respond as healthcare continues to evolve. Care environments will be served behind the scenes by highly flexible technological infrastructure containing mechanical, data, and robotic delivery systems that support pioneering treatments while allowing prioritization of human connections.

Seamless integration of digital capabilities blurs traditional distinctions between inpatient, outpatient, and virtual care to support patients throughout their healthcare journey.

“This is a revolutionary moment for medical care and a complete rethinking of the traditional hospital building as we know it offering maximum flexibility for future needs, while ensuring that the interest of the patient remains at the heart of their healthcare,” says Norman Foster, founder and executive chairman, Foster + Partners. “Our design centers on natural light, views and connections with nature to facilitate new breakthroughs and help deliver the highest level of care with warmth and compassion.”

On the project team:
Owner: Mayo Clinic
Architects: Foster + Partners; CannonDesign
Engineers: CannonDesign is Engineer of Record. Burns and McDonnell is engineer of record for central plant upgrades, site electrical, and thermal utilities.
General Contractor: Gilbane Building Company

Rendering: Dbox/Foster + Partners © 2023, courtesy Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research

During the second week of November, the architecture firm NBBJ launched a podcast series called Uplift, that focuses on the transformative power of design. Its first 30-minute episode homed in on designing for behavioral healthcare facilities, a hot topic given the increasing number of new construction and renovation projects in this subsector.

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