Duke Medicine Pavilion

Durham, North Carolina
High-Tech. High-Touch.

Let’s say you’re a patient. Where do you get dropped off? What route do you take to get where you need to go? During treatment, what are you looking at? What about your patient advocates?

For Duke Medical Pavilion, we asked hundreds of questions just like this. Every answer impacted material choice, layouts, room lighting, acoustics, and so much more.

Yes, the pavilion houses 160 critical care rooms and adds 18 new operating suites while connecting three surrounding buildings. And yes, it’s home to some of the most brilliant medical staff and state-of-the-art equipment in the world. Yet in addition to all of these patient-oriented details, the design is one of the biggest proponents of wellness.

Patient rooms face courtyards and gardens. Hallways are wide enough to accommodate a doctor and their residents. Light switches, when flipped on and off, are quiet. And daylight is everywhere.

All these details reduce stress. For caregivers, lives are enhanced. For patients, recovery is faster.

A new, elevated plaza welcomes patients and visitors to the Pavilion and celebrates the building connections through a series of calming and accessible outdoor spaces.
Design Excellence

If your mission is health, why not also think of the Earth’s? For Duke, reducing their environmental footprint was critical.

As the first inpatient facility in North Carolina to achieve LEED certification, the project reached LEED Gold status and is projected to reduce energy costs by 24.5% and save 3.5 million gallons of water annually.

And in an understated gesture to Duke’s design heritage, we incorporated reclaimed Duke stone, limestone, and slate into the tailored design. Wood was reused and sourced locally and glass recycled.

In other design news, and in a touch that might just register subconsciously, the graphic behind the front desk includes the famous Duke Chapel rosary windows.

The innovative design creates an inward-looking patient care environment focused around elevated courtyards and gardens, maximizing access to natural light and improving the speed of patient recovery.
New, state-of-the-art surgical and critical care platform were developed specifically with the needs and comfort of patients and their loved ones in mind.

Project Team

People
Amy Corneliussen Sickeler
People
Jim Bynum
People
Manuel Cadrecha
People
Leo Alvarez
People
Willard Lariscy
People
Diana Davis
People
Zan Stewart