M Health Fairview Southdale Hospital – Inpatient Expansion: The original campus was developed in the 1960s with an elegant curving brick bed tower. A recent addition has departed from the original architecture with a series of glass and metal panel masses. Situated on the highly visible north part of the campus, the design of the addition bridges the differing eras of architecture and creates a cohesive campus language. Architecturally, the sweeping simple massing of the new bed tower expansion creates a dramatic new presence and reinvigorates the Southdale campus image.

M Health Fairview Southdale Hospital – Inpatient Expansion: One of the principal design goals of the project was to carefully consider the human experience of working, visiting, and being cared for in the building. Careful attention was placed on creating visual connections between clinical spaces and the surrounding nature outside. The incorporation of large windows means the need for interior lighting during the day is reduced. LED lighting was used throughout the project with occupancy sensors to minimize energy usage. From a material standpoint, a more sustainable rubber flooring.

M Health Fairview Southdale Hospital – Inpatient Expansion: The boldness of the addition goes beyond just the massing of the building. Shortly after the project started, the pandemic brought the challenge of how the campus could handle a temporary modification to its spaces to deal with a surge of COVID-19 patients. This real-time experience resulted in a rework of the planning and design of an inpatient unit that could adapt to care for patients with airborne infectious diseases. The size and configuration of the inpatient rooms allows them to adapt from a medical/surgical unit to an intermediate care unit with little rework of the overall space, creating even more flexibility.

M Health Fairview Southdale Hospital – Inpatient Expansion: A key innovative design element was moving to a dispersed nursing model versus the typical centralized model used in the original hospital tower. This brings the nursing staff closer to the patients, an important factor in improving care delivery and increasing patient satisfaction. This model is being used as a prototype for adapting other existing patient care units in the existing hospital in the future.

M Health Fairview Southdale Hospital – Inpatient Expansion: The centrally located nursing stations brings the nursing staff closer to the patients, an important factor in improving care delivery and increasing patient satisfaction. This model is being used as a prototype for adapting other existing patient care units in the existing hospital in the future.

M Health Fairview Southdale Hospital – Inpatient Expansion: Originally designed to handle only a single-story addition, the project required skillful engineering modifications, including sinking cement pillars to support the load of the addition, all without disrupting ongoing patient activity.

M Health Fairview Southdale Hospital – Inpatient Expansion: The addition has 12 of the 52 patient rooms dedicated to treat patients with airborne infectious diseases, like COVID-19. In this new model, the percentage of rooms planned in the addition is significantly higher than what would typically be planned in bed units of similar size.

In 2019, M Health Fairview Southdale Hospital in Edina, Minn., began planning an expansion of its Edina healthcare campus. The project would add 52 private patient rooms.

In its design for the addition, Perkins&Will (Minneapolis) bridged the design language of two earlier buildings on campus. Those are an eight-story bed tower built in 1964 and a two-story emergency department (ED) added in 2015. The addition was constructed atop that ED.

The resulting design maintains the elegant curvature of the two original campus buildings while updating the look of the original bed tower.

Exterior, white fiber cement boards and large, recessed ribbon windows echo the materiality of the existing buildings. Large windows in public corridors and patient rooms bathe the interior spaces with light and offer treetop-level views to the outdoors.

Redesigned nursing areas create modular areas for nurses to remain close to patients and feature direct sight lines into patient rooms. Flexible, adaptable areas for patient care ensure the hospital is equipped to respond as community health needs change.

Facility name: M Health Fairview Southdale Hospital – Inpatient Expansion

Total building area: 53,620 sq. ft.

Cost/sq. ft.: $532/sq. ft.

Architecture firm: Perkins&Will

Interior design: Perkins&Will

Engineering: Graef (structural), Dunham (MEP)

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