HED was tasked with completing the key elements of the Heart and Vascular Institute at the West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia.

In our healthcare practice, a new design vision must often accommodate preexisting structures, adapting an existing footprint to meet the changing needs and delivery modalities of evolving patient care. In our work with West Virginia University, HED was challenged to reimagine an in-process build, transforming a recent tower addition from planned children’s hospital to a world-class academic, research and surgical heart and vascular institute.

At the time HED joined the project, many of the building’s key elements—including the inner core, shell, column spacing, floor-to-ceiling height, load-bearing capacity and utility distribution—were already in place; however, the necessary conditions for critical cardiac care modalities—like operating rooms—were not.

Through an imaginative, integrated reworking of the existing layout, HED’s team of designers and architects were able to deliver a design that not only met, but ultimately surpassed, industry standards. Today, WVU’s Heart and Vascular Institute is one of the largest dedicated centers in the mid-Atlantic region, and is internationally recognized for its clinical excellence and research.

Architect: HED
Photography: John D’Angelo