Bellevue Hospital Center Ambulatory Care Facility

In addition to accommodating an essential medical function, the new building serves as the main entrance for the entire hospital complex, reintroducing the architecture of the historic McKim, Mead & White–designed building to the experience of ten thousand daily visitors.

The most challenging aspect of the design was negotiating a spatially and symbolically generous relationship between the closely situated new and existing buildings. Visitors enter beneath a sheltering overhang and, passing through transparent glass entrances, encounter an axial view of the original monumental entrance portal. In bringing the two together, the glazed atrium has become the emblematic heart of Bellevue.

The elevators serving the new building provide easy access and functional flexibility. Each upper floor has public waiting areas arrayed along the curved galleria. A series of reception desks facilitate public interface with the different clinics. Patient examination rooms and clinical support spaces are in the zone adjacent to the reception units. The division of the floor plate into public, service, and clinical zones optimizes programmatic flexibility and promotes efficiency.

The array of murals on each level celebrates the continuity of care, vitality, and enthusiasm at this institution.