Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects has revealed its design for the Fifth & Columbia Tower, planned for Seattle's financial district. Extra Large Image

Winfield · 2008.0513
The Chicago, Illinois, office of RTKL Associates Inc. has revealed its design for a $235 million patient tower at Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, Illinois. The 276,000-square-foot (25,600-square-meter) facility is anticipated to achieve LEED Silver certification.

The bed pavilion will form a new front entrance for the hospital. The main lobby will connect the conference center and auditorium to the existing hospital by way of a two-story curving concourse facing a landscaped courtyard. Another two-story lobby will join the bed pavilion to the ambulatory care pavilion and existing parking garage.

The five-story tower will include 202 private patient rooms, divided into three units per floor. Each of the 340-square-foot (32-square-meter) rooms will be ADA accessible, equipped with patient lifts, and include a separate family area. Nurses will work from decentralized stations located between every two patient rooms.

Construction on the bed pavilion is slated to begin in spring 2009, with completion expected in fall 2011. RTKL's design team includes Alexander Faurot, AIA, ACHA, vice president and senior project manager, and Daniel C. White, AIA, principal-in-charge.

London · 2008.0513
The new United Kingdom headquarters for Willis, located in London, is complete. Foster + Partners designed the project, which comprises two buildings that step down to a public plaza. The development has received a BREEAM Excellent rating.

The nine-story building responds to a smaller-scale streetscape on one side, while the 28-story Willis Building rises to the west. The smaller building's concave facade shapes the plaza and reinstates a historic route through the site. The development is visually unified by highly reflective facades.

Los Angeles · 2008.0508
Joseph M. Madda, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP, has joined the Los Angeles, California, office of HGA Architects and Engineers (Hammel, Green and Abrahamson) as a principal and associate vice president. Madda will reinforce the firm's growing healthcare practice group. Madda has over 30 years of design and construction experience. In addition to healthcare projects, his portfolio includes higher education, civic, defense, corporate, interiors, entertainment, and retail projects.

Seattle · 2008.0508
Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects LLP (ZGF) has revealed its design for Fifth & Columbia (rendered above), an office tower planned for the financial district of Seattle, Washington. The 43-story, 760,000-square-foot (70,600-square-meter) tower will rise adjacent to the landmark First United Methodist Church sanctuary.

The church sanctuary and nearby historic Rainier Clurb will maintain visual prominence at street level. The faceted tower will slope over the existing structures, then taper back through a series of triangulated building planes. The structural system will include a central core with exterior bracing. Diagonal steel braces will visually divide the building planes and emphasize the tower's verticality.

ZGF is designing the tower to achieve LEED Gold certification. Sustainable features will include daylighting, photovoltaic panels, and rainwater collection systems. Completion is scheduled for summer 2010. The developer is Daniels Development.

Washington, D.C. · 2008.0507
Ellerbe Becket has named Gregory Y. Chang, AIA, national director of healthcare. Chang is based in the firm's Washington, D.C., office, where he has worked for the past ten years as a principal and director of planning. His current projects include University Hospital in Dubai Healthcare City in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland; and the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center, Cancer Institute, in Oklahoma City.

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