The Schneck Professional Building and Parking Garage is an 84,000sf five-story medical office building served by a five-story 400 space parking garage that simplified the hospital campus. The new facility is connected to the most public side of the hospital along Highway 50 and rebrands the campus with a welcoming front door to the community, glassy community conference rooms overlooking the city, and a clean façade of familiar brick, limestone and metal panels that reinforces the best elements of the campus architecture.

The connected parking garage organizes the campus and consolidates outpatient parking clarifying wayfinding on campus and allowing all patients closer access to their desired entrances. By providing patients with a direct entrance to their doctor’s office on each floor, a singular elevator lobby serves the building and garage for simplicity. The building and garage meet with a stacked public lobby that connects the first-floor community entrance at the north to a central courtyard and lightwell at its south. Natural light fills this multistory connector from both directions and a welcoming station greets patients as they travel to the connected hospital or adjacent Jackson Medical Building.

The Professional Building contains five similar floors of flexible clinic space with centralized registration and waiting, two pods of 12 exam rooms, shared staff workrooms and lounge, and an offstage elevator to service the clinic out of the patient’s view. Leadership’s commitment to education is expressed through distinguishable multistory classrooms on the first, third and fifth floors which provide the best views on campus. The standardized clinics are flexible for all physician specialties and allow the building to accommodate growth or rearrangements without the need for renovation in the future.

A tight 12’ floor to floor height was established to both align with the adjacent hospital and MOB floors and to directly connect to each floor level of the parking garage. This challenge was embraced and overcome

through both construction technology and creative design. Through the use of an energy-efficient chilled beam HVAC system, much smaller ductwork was required than in a traditional system. Structurally, an 11” thick voided concrete slab technology was implemented for only the third time in the United States.

It eliminated all beams and joists and lightened the building structure to reduce the foundation requirements. These design decisions allowed for reasonable ceiling heights throughout the clinic despite the tight constraints. Also, by carving out the floor plates on the second and fourth floors, the creative design allowed the public spaces to be more open, naturally lit, and visually connected.

The building was designed to engage, celebrate, and serve the community. Even the artwork was of local landmarks by local photographers. It was a fitting final touch for the facility that illustrates Schneck Medical Center’s commitment to the patients and community they serve.