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Malone Family Tower

Portland, Maine
A Gateway to Healing, Rooted in Place

The Malone Family Tower is an 8-story addition to Maine Medical Center’s historic campus in Portland, Maine. The building represents the culmination of a decade-long development initiative to enhance patient access to hospital-based care, create more private rooms, and facilitate better patient outcomes. Approaching 150 years in service and faced with an aging campus, hospital leadership wanted to remain at the location of their founding but needed to address urgent infrastructure and community needs such as inefficient space allocation and a shortage of surgical beds. The hospital also needed additional facilities to address population growth in the Portland area as well as to serve an aging population with health disparities arising from poverty, with an emphasis on cardiac care. The Malone Family Tower creates 40 pre- and post-surgical beds, 19 procedure rooms, and 96 universal patient rooms that allow the hospital to meet the growing demand for inpatient care.

Malone Family Tower MMC Exterior Dusk
The Malone Family Tower serves as a welcoming gateway to the Maine Medical Center campus along Congress Street, a major transit artery in Portland.
Meeting Need
Clinical spaces are designed for flexible and responsive patient care.
Universal Patient Rooms
Patient rooms are intentionally sized and configured to accommodate a range of acuities.

Critical Care (ICU) functions dictated space around the patient bed for clinical access, while required support functions including full bathrooms and visitor spaces allow for less intensive recovery functions without altering the layout. In this thoughtful planning, rooms can be converted to meet patient acuity without the need to build new or renovate existing spaces as needs for the campus change. An arc configuration allows for better visibility from corridors, and a nested shape improves travel efficiency between rooms.

Malone Family Tower MMC Atrium Ceiling
Local Influence
The rugged stone, woods, and water of the Maine coastline inspired design and material choices.

A striking, jaggedly faceted façade opens into a soaring seven-story atrium that visually connects the public concourse to clinical spaces and lounges for visitors and staff.

The central atrium unifies seven stories, proving daylight to spaces that would have otherwise been closed off.
MMC Atrium Diagram
Thinking Holistically
Building a Sustainable Future

The Malone Family Tower was the first building of its kind in Maine to undergo a whole building life cycle assessment during design, resulting in low embodied carbon. Material health was paramount, with a natural wood paneling system in public areas and clinical spaces offering a low carbon footprint, biophilic properties, and improved acoustics. Durable materials reduce future repairs or renovations, ensuring long-term sustainability. Additionally, a green roof mitigates water runoff and lowers the “heat island” effect, and a meditation room provides a serene, private environment for family and care team members.

MHMMC’s cardiovascular team provides extraordinary care, and with the Malone Family Tower, we have a facility that matches the high standards they set.

Dr. Joel Botler, MaineHealth Southern Region Chief Medical Officer

Project Team

Jeffrey Keilman
People
Jeffrey Keilman
Yanel de Angel
People
Yanel de Angel
Ron Gorham
People
Ron Gorham