Weill Cornell Medicine, Weill Greenberg Center

Wong Thumb

Weill Cornell Medicine, Weill Greenberg Center

This world-class ambulatory care center is conceived as a civic building, heralding a new era in personalized medicine: the design optimizes the patient experience to promote health and healing and reinforces the institution’s state-of-the-art clinical services.

0133 Greenberg Detail3

That hospitals are just as much a civic building as a community center or museum has been our emphatic belief ever since our initial kick-off meeting for the Greenberg Center fifteen years ago, and it continues to inform our work within healthcare to this day.

Todd Schliemann, Design Partner
0133 Greenberg Sketch

The first building of Ennead’s master plan for the westward expansion of Weill Cornell Medicine’s campus, this clinical facility integrates itself into the everyday fabric of the city and provides an elegant, reassuring and welcoming face for healthcare.

0133 Greenberg Context2
0133 Greenberg Entry
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0133 Greenberg Circulation
0133 Greenberg Lobby

In contrast to the neighboring brick residential buildings and the neo-Gothic hospital, the building is sheathed entirely in glass, whose open, transparent qualities and experiential richness communicate openness and accessibility, redefining the institution’s identity.

0133 Greenberg Facade2
0133 Greenberg Hero

The ceramic-frit¬ted, water-white glass curtainwall, which is cut into long vertical facets, veils the building like an undulating fabric, generating a softness and depth for its reflective skin. The unique geometry of the façade establishes a distinct architectural character and acts as a prism to create shardlike reflections of the surrounding context. Throughout the day, the shimmering building transforms with the ever-changing qualities of natural light and continual street activity.

0133 Greenberg Light
0133 Greenberg Stair
0133 Greenberg Interior3
0133 Greenberg Office
0133 Greenberg Interior1

From the interior, this translucent skin subdues the hustle and bustle of the city and gently shapes the flow of natural light. A series of water features, diffused natural light and a natural materials enhance the sense of calm, easing patient stress and anxiety.

0133 Greenberg Patient1
0133 Greenberg Room
0133 Greenberg Approach

A convenient interior vehicle drop-off opens directly into the ground floor lobby, facilitating seamless and private patient arrivals and departures.

Details

Year
2007
Location
New York, NY
Size
330,000 GSF
Program
Clinical Spaces, Clinical Skills Center, Patient Resource Center, Library, Lobby, Offices

Team

Ennead Design Team
Todd Schliemann, Duncan Hazard, Thomas Wong, Lois Mate, Craig McIlhenny, David Ooyevaar, Edward Christian, Jesse Peck, James Sinks, Charmian Place, Steven Chang, Amber Foo, Greg Haley, Christopher Halloran, Elliott Hodges, Chee-ping Kuek, Jane Lin, Hanson Liu, Marianne Madigan, Lori Pavese Mazor, Clay Miller, Si-Yeon Min, James Rhee, William Rosebro, Zoe Small, David Wallance
Associate Architect/Healthcare Architect
Ballinger
Photography
Jeff Goldberg/Esto, David Sundberg/Esto, Andy Ryan/Andy Ryan Photography, Aislinn Weidele/Ennead Architects

Awards

  • 2009
    • Award of Honor, Society of American Registered Architects/New York Council, 2009
  • 2008
    • National Healthcare Design Award, AIA/Academy of Architecture for Health, 2008
    • Award of Excellence, Modern Healthcare Design Award, 2008
  • 2006
    • Best of 2006 Merit Award, New York Construction Magazine

Press

  • 2010
    • "Weill Greenberg Center Building in New York by Polshek Partnership Architects" (Architeria.com, 6/2/2010)
  • 2008
    • "AIA Healthcare Awards 2008" (ArchitectureWeek, 9/17/2008)
    • "Weill Greenberg Center New York, New York Polshek Partnership Architects/Ballinger" (Healthcare Design, 10/31/2008)
    • Hart, Sara. "Weill Greenberg Center at Weill Cornell Medical College, New York" (Architect Magazine, 7/14/2008)
  • 2007
    • Miller, Gabriel. "Medical college's newly named Weill Greenberg Center boasts state-of-the-art ambulatory care, education and research" (Cornell Chronicle, 1/29/2007)
    • O'Neill, James M. "Cornell Names New York Building for Weill Greenberg" (Bloomberg.com, 1/26/2007)
  • 2006
    • Gardner, James. "A Postmodern Hospital Rises Uptown" (The New York Sun, 10/20/2006)
    • Rasenberger, Jim. "Hospital Land" (The New York Times, 1/28/2006)
  • 2005
    • Hanks, Nancy. "Cornell's Weill Medical College Constructs a Showpiece Tower" (Artnet News (online), 8/2005)
    • Hanks, Nancy. "Cornell's Weill Medical College Constructs a Showpiece Tower" (New York Construction News, 8/2005)