Why do buildings last? How do we design flexible spaces that can change and adapt? 

A team from Shepley took on this question as part of the Open Building conference at Build Boston last month. The conference tasked three firms – Shepley, Payette, and Cannon – to propose a building that would evolve over time to house multiple uses on a large scale site in Somerville. We took the long historical view and, after a week of exhaustive debate, found that architectural systems which are designed to change rarely work or ...[more]

Shepley Bulfinch’s design of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center is cited as a model of how to design for flexible implementation in Richard De Neufville’s new book, “Flexibility in Engineering Design,” pub- lished by MIT Press in September. The original design of the medical center, which opened in 1991, enabled subsequent vertical and horizontal expansion.

The book offers a high-level overview of why flexibility in design is needed to deliver significantly increased value. It describes in detail methods to identify, select, and implement useful flexibility. For Dartmouth-Hitchcock, that meant development and execution of ...[more]

The healing power of the award-winning Hollander Healing Garden of Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven is celebrated in the October 2011 issue of Health Facilities Management. Its recognition as a distinctive design element of note is the latest in the magazine’s monthly “Last Detail” feature.

The 2,500 square foot rooftop garden, located on the 7th floor of the hospital, is an oasis of calm in one of the densest parts of downtown New Haven, Connecticut. It is one of a number of elements in the hospital that draw ...[more]

The US Green Building Council has awarded LEED® certification to Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven in recognition of the hospital’s successful sustainable design and construction strategies. The 516,000 square foot hospital is located in downtown New Haven.

When planning for Smilow began in 2002, sustainable strategies, including LEED certification, were not widely considered attainable in healthcare, given their high energy demands and other perceived constraints. The project team rose to the challenge of making Smilow a sustainable trendsetter. New opportunities for LEED points were sought and identified by ...[more]

A “topping out” ceremony on September 9 marked the symbolic installation of the last piece of structural steel for the Health and Biomedical Sciences Center at the University of Houston, which will feature the College of Optometry’s Vision Institute. In keeping with tradition, a small tree and a flag were attached to the steel beam, which bears the signatures of those involved in the project from the university and the design and construction team. Dr Earl Smith, dean of the UH College of Optometry spoke at ...[more]

Creating an environment that promotes healing complements the development and practice of treatments that heal. That was the thinking behind the design of Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven Hospital, which has received an Award of Merit in the Connecticut Green Building Council’s (CTGBC) 2011 Green Building Design Awards. Norman Roth, Yale-New Haven’s Senior Vice President of Administration, accepted the award at the June 21 ceremony in New Haven.

The hospital was designed by Shepley Bulfinch and landscape architects Towers|Golde, and built by Turner Construction.

Eight years in the making, the 516,000 square foot cancer hospital ...[more]