sammc

This entry was posted in awards publications selected projects and tagged addition governmental healthcare transportation on by .

Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, is one of the US Army’s centers of excellence and its only level-one trauma center. The medical center is also home to the world-famous Institute of Surgical Research (the BAMC Burn Unit).

As part of the Base Realignment and Closure program (BRAC), a 750,000SF addition to BAMC will almost double the size of the existing facility and is to be complete by September 2011. The consolidated facility will be known as San Antonio Military Medical Center – SAMMC.

With the Burn Unit as one of the major components of the facility, the design team worked with the concept of “skin grafting” as a metaphor and inspiration for designing the addition.

In creating the skin for the new addition, samples of existing skin (brick) are metaphorically taken off of the old building, meshed, and applied to the new addition in the form of terra cotta sunscreens. This “procedure” ties the new and existing portions together by the use of similar materials (brick, terra cotta) in different ways.

Programmatically, the new addition is also informed by the functional layout of the existing building: the inpatient, diagnostic/treatment, and outpatient areas of the addition are located adjacent to the corresponding areas in the existing facility. The goal is to provide functional continuity for caretakers and patients but not to mimic the existing building. New and old should be in dialogue, compatible yet distinguishable, each a window into its own time and cultural, technical and architectural values.

awards

  • The Texas Society of Architects – 2012 Design Awards – – 2012 – sammc
  • AIA Dallas Chapter – 2012 Dallas Design Awards – Merit Award | Built – 2012 – sammc
  • AIA National – 2013 Healthcare Design Awards – Category B: Built, More than $25 million (construction cost) – 2012 – sammc
  • The American Institute of Architects Select the 2015 COTE Top Ten Green Projects – 2015 – sammc

publications