Kaiser Permanente Mililani Clinic
Size: 15,000 sq. ft.
Cost: $200 per sq. ft.
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Ferraro Choi Creates New
Clinic for Growing Community
"Our patients love the atrium effect, with the skylights and an
open, user-friendly layout. Staff members appreciate the efficiency
it allows them. Ferraro Choi's design for our Mililani Clinic has
provided us with a professional and healing atmosphere."
Paula Wicklund
Clinic Manager, Mililani
Kaiser Permanente
BACKGROUND:
A suburb of Honolulu, Mililani is an award-winning Master Planned
Community with well-defined design guidelines. In early 1992, Kaiser
Permanente chose Ferraro Choi and Associates to create a new, stand-alone
clinic in the Mililani Town Center to provide a wide range of medical
services to this growing community.
Program requirements for this 15,000 square-foot medical facility included administrative offices, doctor
offices, exam rooms, procedure rooms, nurses' stations, prep stations,
admitting area, waiting area, laboratory, x-ray, blood draw, pharmacy,
optometry, employee lounge, and conference and training facilities.
The facility needed to offer space for community activities
such as lectures, meetings and classes. Mililani Town Center also required that the exterior facade of the building conform and fit in with the established architectural mansard roof forms of the surrounding shopping center.
APPROACH:
Ferraro Choi's first step was to visit other existing medical facilities
throughout the islands to observe firsthand what design elements
were successful, as well as to note what elements failed. Ferraro Choi noted that many existing medical
clinics had confusing layouts, which made navigation difficult for
both patients and visitors. Also noted was that many public areas
were somber, low artificially-lit rooms, which tended to promote
a depressing atmosphere. During this research phase, the design
team began soliciting feedback directly from end-users rather
than relying solely on recommendations from the medical facilities
manager. Nurses, doctors, receptionists, and laboratory technicians
alike were included in discussions and given the opportunity to
provide constant input throughout the design process.
SOLUTION:
Based on its findings, Ferraro Choi's concept for the new medical
clinic was centered on light. "A medical clinic is a place of healing,"
says Gerald Choi, Founding Partner. "We therefore chose to emphasize the
positive, psychologically uplifting force of natural ambient light
for the new Kaiser Mililani Clinic." As a primary design element,
a cohesive network of skylights was used throughout the facility
to create an atrium effect, flooding the clinic with natural light.
The skylights also were used as directional tools to echo the natural
layout of the building intuitively pointing the way to different
areas and departments within the facility.
Color was also used as an important design element throughout the
medical facility. A far cry from traditional institutional hues,
warm, "humanizing" colors were used in the interiors to create an
uplifting and pleasant atmosphere. Each department or wing was assigned
its own color coding to help patients find their way. The exterior
colors were chosen to blend with the shopping center and surrounding
community. A reddish band was strategically placed at the base of
the medical clinic's exterior, to unite architectural elements while
camouflaging the staining effects of Mililani's notorious "red dirt."
Finally, because the medical profession is advancing faster than
most industries, design strategies were implemented to address flexibility
and future expansion. During the design phase, a master plan was
conceived to allow for an area of growth beyond the clinic's initial
intended size. To allow for easy expansion, the floor plan was organized
around a simple central "spine" layout with doctors' offices and
examination rooms purposely designed similar in size to allow interchangeability.
Cabling and data transmission lines were also installed with capacities
to allow for future growth.
For more information on Kaiser Permanente, please visit their website:
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