HKS completed the Allegheny Health Network Wexford Hospital with a patient-minded design in Wexford, Pennsylvania.

With the goal of bringing healthcare closer to home, Allegheny Health Network Wexford Hospital supports healthy lifestyles and offers a wide spectrum of advanced patient services. Designed with the patient at the forefront, the 160-bed hospital offers a value-based approach to design that focuses on patient experiences, efficient operations, and financial and environmental stability. The hospital is designed around a series of connected public spaces that reinforce connection to nature. These connections also inform wayfinding, beginning at the entry that sits below a dramatic wood-clad cantilever that relies on a first-of-its-kind structural system. The lobby is bathed in natural light, and its natural, warm materials foster a home-like feeling. The hospital offers large patient rooms with views, ample daylight and hotel-like concierge services. The rooms incorporate the latest in healthcare technology: bedside access to electronic health records, telemedicine and remote monitoring, and an interactive video board. Community engagement was a critical component of the process and resulted in important design decisions including a clearly identifiable front door, the location of the hospital’s meeting space, and placement of the helicopter pad, which was acoustically analyzed to minimize the impact to the surrounding community. Since opening, the hospital has exceeded expectations.

Design: HKS
Associate Architect: IKM Architecture
Contractor: Gilbane Massaro Joint Venture
Photography: Ed Massery