The project was chal-
lenging, because architects
were working with an
existing building originally
planned as a business
office and hotel. That
meant there was a pre-
approved zoning plan and
a requirement that the
facility be harmoniously
laid out over several verti-
cally adjacent floors. To
make it happen, a second
tower, subject to the same
zoning requirements, was
added and 2 buildings
became one by connecting
them through a lobby.
"We essentially had a
box that we had to make
everything work in," says Mr. Lee. "But it's a lean approach to design in the sense
that we wanted to reduce the number of steps as much as possible, as people go
from point A to point B."
The layout includes 10 dedicated elevators, including 2 for transporting
patients, one for clean case carts, one for soiled goods, one that provides a
direct connection from staff locker rooms to ORs and one that delivers dis-
charged patients to a valet-serviced garage. There they find their cars waiting for
them as they step out of the elevator.
"The idea," says Pratibha Vemulapalli, MD, Montefiore's director of perioperative
January 2015 O U T PAT I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T 4 7
z WELCOME TO MONTEFIORE "Studies show that people tend
to do better when things are colorful and cheery," says Pratibha
Vemulapalli, MD, Montefiore's director of perioperative service.
"When you walk into the building, it's a huge open lobby with a
lot of natural light coming in. It's very colorful and very bright."
