ROPER ST. FRANCIS HOSPITAL HEART CENTER ADDITION AND PARKING GARAGE

Charleston, SC

The project encompasses a new 226,000 SF cardiac center with four cath labs, seven holding bays and eight adjacent CICU beds. There are also three floors of cardiac nursing units totalling 96 beds, a separate cardio-thoracic surgery suite floor with four operating rooms and an associated 12-bed CTICU. Great sentimentality was attached to the appearance of the original landmark building, so care was taken to blend the new facade with the existing facility. The first order of business was to make an identifiable entrance to the reconfigured hospital grounds because the main entrance off Calhoun Street had become lost against a collection of building additions and obscured by the public transit entrance.The new long brick and precast stone facade is simultaneously broken through the introduction of tower-like elements with curtain wall recesses between, and unified through a continuous aluminum brow. The brow reduces the perceived height ofthe structure while masking the sixth floor louvers necessary for the mechanical level.