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