By Healthcare Facilities Today

The design of the new Barlow Respiratory Hospital (BRH) in Los Angeles will strike a balance between the building’s modern features and the surrounding historic neighborhood, while also bringing in natural elements to nurture the healing process of the facility’s long-term patients, according to an article on the Healthcare Construction + Operations website.

Construction on the $80 million project — a 80,000-square-foot, acute-care facility and 30,000-square-foot administration building  — will begin in early 2014 with a tentative completion date of 2016. The project is aiming for LEED Silver certification.

Founded in 1902, the BRH lies just outside of downtown Los Angeles and adjacent to Elysian Park. Architects were charged with designing a building that did not appear as if it were built 100 years ago, but also to not disrupt the historic, park-like setting of the 25-acre campus.

The structure of the building is a gentle S curve, which mimics the in and out motion of easy, flowing breathing. The design of the S curve developed from strategies in the planning process. As architects studied nursing pods, which occurred in eight-bed pods, a triangular or saw-tooted pattern began to develop, according to Joey Kragelund, AIA, principal with HGA Architects.

Read the article.