Healthcare Design - November 2020 - 60

SIMPLE TOUCHES

Inpatient rooms at
Nantucket Cottage
Hospital incorporate
furnishings for families
to stay overnight
as well as operable
windows that fit the
island aesthetic and
can be utilized if the
HVAC systems become
inoperable.

porating hurricane design specifications established by Florida's Miami Dade County. The new
hospital is built to withstand winds in excess of
158 mph thanks in part to a double-hulled exterior building shell composed of fire- and impactresistant drywall, metal studs, and 5-by-5-foot
concrete footings fortified by mesh-all of which
are covered with traditional cedar shingles that
look at home on the island. In case of severe
flooding, the hospital's mechanical systems are
located on the top of the building and hidden behind a mansard roof. Other resilient features of
the building include hurricane-resistant doors
and windows, dual electrical and water supplies
to provide backup redundancy, and operable
windows for ventilation if the air handling systems lose power.
While the hospital's resilency features prepare it for the next weather-related event,
many of its other modern features have proven
beneficial throughout the coronavirus pandemic, says Gary Shaw, president and CEO at
Nantucket Cottage Hospital (Shaw joined the
hospital in December 2019). Specifically, when
COVID -19 hit the island in spring, the medical staff was able to create hot and cold zones
to separate infected and noninfected patients
thanks to the flexible care environment. The
facility's robust new telemedicine capabilities,
originally intended to support communications
between clinicians on the island and specialists
at the system's mainland facilities, enabled clinicians to easily respond to the rise in demand
for telehealth services and supported communication between patients and staff and their
families via mobile devices. "By the nature of
how modern structures are built with current
codes, airflow, lighting, and technologies, these
buildings are highly adaptable to various focused events," he says. 

Resiliency was also a priority in delivering a
modern facility, with the project team incor-

Anne DiNardo is executive editor of Healthcare
Design. She can be reached at A N N E . D I N A R D O @
EMERALDX.COM.

HCDMAGAZINE.COM

ISLAND FORTRESS

NOVEMBER 2020

PROJECT DETAILS

Project name: Nantucket
Cottage Hospital
Project completion date:
January 2019
Owner: Nantucket Cottage
Hospital
Total building area:
110,000 sq. ft.
Total construction cost:
N/A
Cost/sq. ft.: N/A
Architecture: CannonDesign
Interior design:
CannonDesign
General contractor:
Suffolk Construction
Engineering: CannonDesign
Builder: Suffolk Construction
Carpet/flooring: Nora
Systems, Imola, Interface
Ceiling/wall systems:
Armstrong Ceiling
Doors/locks/hardware:
Anderson, Stanley
Fabric/textiles: Carnegie,
Knoll Textiles, CF Stinson,
Luum
Furniture-seating/
casegoods: Allsteel,
IOA, Gunlocke, Nemschoff,
Keilhauer, Hon, Barber
Brothers
Handrails/wall guards:
CS Acrovyn
Headwalls/booms: Amico
Lighting: CannonDesign
Signage/wayfinding:
CannonDesign
For an expanded list, visit
HCDmagazine.com. Project
details are provided by the
design team and not vetted by
Healthcare Design.

CHRISTOPHER B ARRETT

To guide decisions about the interior design,
Stroupe says the project team visited island
homes, hotels, and restaurants to get an understanding of local styles, materials preferences,
and color palettes. One common feature that
was noted, she says, was that most houses on the
island utilize light colors to help reflect available light and brighten interior spaces on cloudy
or foggy days. In response, the hospital features
a predominately white color palette with touches of blues in key areas, such as the registration
desk in the physician office space or near patient
doorways in the inpatient unit.
When selecting materials, designers took a
simplified approach that was inspired by the
island's natural elements, including porcelain
tile and white oak wood. Nantucket's history of
craftsmanship, including the weaving of lightship baskets, which tie back to the whaling industry, were also incorporated into the project
and represented through decorative elements
such as hanging light fixtures in the dining
area and a wood wall in the lobby. "We ended
up with maybe five materials on the project,
which is pretty unusual," Stroupe says. "A lot
of times when we look at how to approach a
healthcare project, certainly we're trying to
figure out how can we use color to help people
understand where they're going or to provide
interest in the space, but it felt inappropriate
for this particular setting. It really needed to be
more about the simplicity and using materials
in an elegant way, celebrating the craftsmanship, and not doing anything that was applied
and unnecessary."
Rather than add clutter to the environment
with overhead signage or traditional wayfinding, the team relied on the architecture to
help guide people throughout the space. For
example, the main entrance leads to an open
first-floor lobby with all major programs accessible from this space, including the adjacent ED
(which also has a separate entrance) and inpatient rooms on one side of the building and an
ambulatory wing with an outpatient clinic and
conference space on the other. The second floor
utilizes the same open central-lobby concept to
serve as the main waiting area for the labor and
delivery suite, interventional department, and
surgery. A cafeteria and administrative area for
executives are also located there.

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Healthcare Design - November 2020

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