New Home for Neuroscience

From the small touches to the big ones, their answers were incorporated into the facility in the form of glass, concrete and steel. To truly build a home for all of neurological outpatient care, Broderick and others wanted to ensure it was a place of belonging, of comfort for patients and their caregivers. “We’ve relied heavily on our patients to assist in the design of this building,” says Broderick. “It is for them and truly is created by them.”

UC Health hired global architecture and design firm Perkins+Will to oversee the planning and design of the facility. They sought input from doctors, staff and students, and worked with an advisory committee made up of current patients and caregivers, to address every step in the patient’s journey — from the parking garage to the exam room.

“The patient advisory group was really informative for us,” says Clark Miller, managing principal of Perkins+Will. “For instance, we heard them describe the challenges of navigating sloped, tight parking garages, so we designed a flat-leveled garage with entrances and exits from the elevators right to the patient floors, and adjusted the distance between parking spaces to accommodate wheelchairs, as well as stretchers.”

Throughout the two-year design/build process, plywood models were built, mock patient rooms were staged, textiles samples and finishes passed around, all based on feedback from the patient advisory group, and reviewed by clinicians and staff