With the spiritual and material well-being of its next-generation patients in mind, the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine has opened an inpatient facility from Foster + Partners and others that is being heralded as a “hospital of the future.” 

Located on Penn’s historic West Philadelphia campus, The Pavillion is the university’s answer to the growing body of scholarship that supports a patient-oriented approach to care that is embodied in its design and functionality. 

“The new Pavilion is designed to completely redefine the future of healthcare,” Norman Foster said. “The building enables innovations that reflect University of Pennsylvania’s history of medical firsts, creating a truly flexible facility that molds itself to the needs of the patient. Responsive, adaptable and future-proof, it will allow the hospital to continue its crucial life-saving work and remain at the cutting edge of patient care.”

The University indeed has a storied history of innovations in the medical sciences. Painter Thomas Eakins’ famous subject David Hayes Agnew was considered a pioneer in the treatment of trauma victims during the Civil War, the first Surgeon General of the Army Benjamin Rush was a prominent faculty member for several decades, and the hospital itself was the first ever to be created with the intention of serving an educational institution, which has led to untold advancements in medicine and society.

The new development will serve as an anchor for the existing hospital buildings and surrounding campus areas. A new public square is created, surrounded by a landscaped pedestrian walk and gardens that connect users to the nearby SEPTA station. Art installations by Maya Lin and Odili Donald Odita dot the ground-level entrance, which is also flooded by restorative natural light that runs throughout the building. 

The architects’ intents toward patient comfort are further expressed in convertible care wards designed around a flexible planning system that enables the bifurcation of each 72-bed floor into smaller fragments in anticipation of demands as multi-varied and challenging as the pandemic has proven 21st-century medicine will become. Floors have been planned around an “on-stage/off-stage” model that cuts down on disruptions and gives clinical teams the space they need to operate effectively. Each of the 504 rooms comes with a variety of high-tech amenities that are repeated in generous lounge areas in which the hospital’s staff can seek rest and respite. 

A team of contributors including HDR, Balfour Beatty, and engineering concerns LP Driscoll and BR+A joined Foster + Partners on the PennFIRST integrated project delivery team (IDP) for the design of the facility. The prefabrication methods used in its construction were a particular point of pride for the architects on the team, who expressed optimism for what they feel creates a “benchmark” in the typology going forward.