Architecture      Interior Design      Planning
Healthcare
   Gross Anatomy Relocation
LOCATION
Durham, North Carolina
STATUS
Complete
 
SERVICES
  • Adaptive Re-use
  • Interior Design
  • Building Information Modeling
CHALLENGE
Facing the demolition of a major lab building to make way for a new hospital, the Owner needed to relocate and expand two associated laboratories for instruction of Gross Anatomy and Fresh Tissue Studies by the Medical School. The targeted area was in a column-filled basement area used by another program that was moving. The existing laboratory facilities did not meet program needs for a competitive educational environment for the five divergent user groups. Air exhaust capacity was insufficient.
 
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SOLUTION
Careful organization of partial walls in the Gross Anatomy Lab provided teaching groupings to conform to varying sizes of user groups. Curved cove lighting gave relief to the otherwise low ceilings and helped differentiate teaching areas from circulation areas. In the Fresh Tissue Lab, the high-low ceiling arrangement was reversed to make room for articulating OR lamps and hi-definition cameras and monitors. Custom Headwalls at each surgery table consolidated plumbing and electrical services and storage into easily cleanable, durable units. In both labs, cameras and monitors were connected to a renovated, 49 seat, full audio-equipped conference room to facilitate distant learning. Insulated freezer and refrigerated storage rooms "bookended" an embalming room. New roof-top mechanical units met the necessary exhaust and extreme cooling requirements of both labs and storage areas.
RESULTS
The Gross Anatomy Lab provided a state-of-the-art teaching facility for use by four different groups in a very clean, well-lit environment. The Fresh Tissue Lab provided essentially an OR environment for teaching advanced surgery techniques to practicing surgeons from all over the world.