Last month, Columbia University’s College of Dental Medicine in New York debuted on the fifth floor of its Vanderbilt Clinic a 15,000-sf Center for Precision Dental Medicine, a loft-like facility that is part of a masterplan to restructure the institution’s dental education, research and practice.
The new Center—designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners in collaboration with the project’s AOR and Executive Architect Jeffrey Berman—is viewed as a prototype for the dental school’s collaborative and technology-driven curriculum, and as a model for subsequent renovations and redesigns at Vanderbilt Clinic.
“This is the beginning of a new wave of dental medicine,” proclaims Lee Goldman, MD, Dean of the Facilities of Health Sciences and Medicine and CEO of Columbia’s Medical Center.
Christian Stohler, DMD, DrMedDent, Dean of Columbia’s College of Dental Medicine and a Senior Vice President of the Medical Center, says the goal of the restructuring, in part, is to add value to the dental medicine curriculum by aligning it more closely to the Medical Center.
The Center for Precision Dental Medicine is organized into two wings of practice areas, each with three “neighborhoods” that encompass eight dental chairs, faculty workstations, and digital design and fabrication areas for 3D printing of dental prosthesis.
Each of the neighborhoods includes a computer screen that allows professors to observe the students they are supervising. The 48 dental chairs, perched atop raised floors, are tricked out with sensors that are being used to collect patient data that allow the medical staff and students to identify commonalities in order to tailor oral care to the surrounding population. (The dental school, located on the university’s Washington Heights campus, provides dentistry services to local residents.)
The sensors “let Columbia to get to the bottom of the community’s wellness issues,” says Christina Nambiar, a Project Architect with Pei Cobb.
The Building Team paid close attention to patient access and comfort. The indirect lighting was designed to minimize glare. And the operatories allow for a full spectrum of procedures, barrier-free access for people with physical disabilities, and ergonomic comfort for both patients and practitioners.
The partitions that separate the procedure spaces include translucent screens that provide patient privacy and generous circulation aisles.
Curvilinear and translucent partiitions, supplied by Planmeca/Triangle, provide transparency and patient privacy. Image: Jeff Goldberg
“The idea was to make the facility as accessible as possible,” explains Ian Bader of Pei Cobb, this project’s Lead Design Architect.
The building is 89 years old, so virtually all of the fifth floor’s systems were replaced during the renovation, says Bader. These include an RFID system tracking all operations, procedures and supplies; and central air handling units for each wing with variable air volume supply fans with variable frequency drive for overhead air distribution and 100% outdoor air airside economizer.
The ventilation system was designed with a computational fluid dynamic model for airborne infection control. IT, electrical, compressed air and vacuum system and plumbing are distributed under a raised floor. A building management system controls lighting and shades.
Nambiar says the floor and ceiling materials were supplied by the same vendor, Lidner. And throughout the Center there’s an “extensive use or Corian,” says Bader.
Other Building Team members included Cosentini Associates (MEPS), Severud Associates Consulting Engineering (SE), One Lux Studio (lighting designer), Planmeca/Triangle’s Montreal office (operatory manufacturer), and Planmeca’s Helsinki office (dental chairs).
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Gafcon announces completion of Coronado animal care facility
Gafcon, a leading California-based construction management and consulting firm, announced today that construction is now complete on a new $1.6 million animal care facility located at 1395 First Street in Coronado, Calif.
| Aug 11, 2010
Colorado hospital wins LEED Gold
The main building of the Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland, Colo., is a 136-bed regional medical center offering a full spectrum of services, with specialties in cardiac and trauma care. Constructed primarily of brick, native sandstone, and 85,000 sf of metal panels manufactured by Centria, the 600,000-sf main building, by Denver-based HLM Design, is one of the few hospitals in the nati...
| Aug 11, 2010
Biomedical center to join London's research scene
The UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation, a partnership of scientific organizations researching new treatments for illnesses such as cancer and heart disease, hopes to attract leading medical scientists to its planned research center. Designed by HOK London, the building will be located on 3.
| Aug 11, 2010
Design ups comfort, care in cancer center
A new cancer center is slated to open in fall 2011 at Banner Gateway Medical Center, Gilbert, Ariz. The three-story, 120,000-sf, $107 million cancer center will contain physician clinics, medical imaging, radiation oncology, infusion therapy, and support services. A/E firm Cannon Design has created a visually open, column-free interior to increase patient comfort and care.
| Aug 11, 2010
Charlotte hospital expands its surgery capabilities
The Chicago office of RTKL designed Carolinas HealthCare System's Mercy Medical Plaza, Charlotte, N.C. The 150,000-sf hospital houses 12 operating rooms with expanded pre-operative and recovery space, a pharmacy, and a central sterile processing unit. Tenant space occupies 75,000 sf. RTKL mimicked the materials and mass of older buildings on the campus but created a more modern look by using ex...
| Aug 11, 2010
And the world's tallest building is…
At more than 2,600 feet high, the Burj Dubai (right) can still lay claim to the title of world's tallest building—although like all other super-tall buildings, its exact height will have to be recalculated now that the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) announced a change to its height criteria.
| Aug 11, 2010
East meets West in hospital design
The Los Angeles office of HMC Architects and the Chinese firm Shunde Architectural Design Institute won the commission to design the 2.15 million-sf First People's Hospital in the Shunde District of Foshan, China. The team's winning concept organizes a series of buildings around a dynamic, curved spine element to create an interior “eco-atrium” with outdoor green space and healing g...
| Aug 11, 2010
MOB added to new hospital project
A late-2009 ground breaking is planned for a $20 million medical office building on the grounds of the $211 million, 106-bed Loma Linda University Medical Center in Murrieta, Calif., which itself is under construction. Minneapolis-based Frauenshuh HealthCare Real Estate Solutions is developing the five-story, 160,000-sf MOB, which will accommodate 60 physician offices.
| Aug 11, 2010
Rehabilitation center helps patients transition
Construction is under way on the Polytrauma Transitional Rehabilitation Center on the VA Medical Center campus in Richmond, Va. The $8 million, 22,000-sf facility will provide physical therapy, housing, and education to veterans as part of their transition back into their communities. The center was designed by HDR, Alexandria, Va.
| Aug 11, 2010
Medical office building planned in Fort Worth, Texas
Dallas-based TGS Architects has unveiled its design for the five-story, 130,000-sf Plaza Medical Office Building, planned for Fort Worth, Texas. The Class A development will include space for orthopedic care, surgery, breast center, diagnostic imaging, cardiovascular, and rehabilitation therapy services.