June 18, 2024
Reading Time: 6 minutes
Photo Credit to Halkin Mason Photography
Featured Project by Array Architects
American Institute of Architects (AIA) New Jersey architects, by education, training, and experience in the Art and Science of Building Design, bring creative problem-solving ideas and vision to help their clients maximize the economic value of their projects and improve the communities where they are located. They help building owners and developers maximize the investment value of underutilized or obsolete properties. Metrics demonstrate that innovative design can add economic value for owners and improve the communities where they are located. And, as AIA National Past President, Carl Elefante, FAIA, advocates, “the greenest building is the one that is already built.” One such example is the masterful adaptive reuse of the Moorestown Mall by Cooper University Health Care at the hands of Array Architects.
Photo Credit to Halkin Mason Photography
Seeking to expand outpatient care to the Moorestown, New Jersey community, Cooper University Health Care chose to adapt and reuse an existing retail structure at the Moorestown Mall. The reimagined building is Cooper’s largest outpatient facility and a state-of-the-art, one-stop location for their ambulatory services. Extending its function as a center for care, the campus was meticulously designed to weave into a town center and foster community, connecting visitors with iconic local landmarks, one another, and restorative design.
The campus is equipped with the latest technologies and amenities to ensure Cooper’s commitment to providing an exceptional healthcare experience close to home. Services include primary care, orthopedics, radiation oncology care, cardiology, women’s health, radiology, infusion therapy, laboratory and diagnostics, and an ambulatory surgery center. In many cases, bringing these services directly to this community prevents extended travel to Cooper’s main hospital and expands their healthcare presence in a new market.
Photo Credit to Halkin Mason Photography
The site of a three-story, 166,000 SF ambulatory care campus posed some challenges. Because of its location along a busy but aging commercial corridor, Cooper’s new Moorestown Campus had to be designed to boldly announce its presence to the community while serving as a catalyst for regeneration. Dynamic elements such as the “Cooper Red” perforated metal screening panels, large expanses of two-story glass, and crisp architectural lighting don’t just make an outwardly bold statement to commuters and shoppers, they are also integral elements of the focused healing environments within, creating a seamless blend of form and function.
As a medical mall, the campus offers convenience at every turn, providing patients and providers easy access to roadways, ample parking, and a sought-after infrastructure for medical services. A central connecting spine captured on both ends – allowing entrance from both central registration and the mall – allows uninterrupted patient flow from two points. The long corridor allowed the design team to create a series of pod waiting areas, allowing clinic service providers’ schedules to flex by day. Central support services and amenities for staff and the public integrate the building into the mall experience with a food service location and a connected care technology hub along the mall circulation axis. This hub allows the purchase of wearables and IT support to integrate them with an online patient portal.
Photo Credit to Halkin Mason Photography
Due in part to its location, Cooper’s Moorestown campus provides profound economic value, breathing new life into an existing space that’s flexible, convenient to users, and close to physical retailers. As shopping malls have changed, these spaces are being targeted more often by health systems for acquisition because they are appropriately zoned for healthcare use, tend to have frontage conducive to visibility and wayfinding without impeding on residential areas and allow entry to new markets. Beyond the jobs created and ease of state approval, adaptive reuse of retail can also demonstrate a commitment to the community.
The design team leveraged Multi-Trade Prefabrication (MTP) to speed construction of the campus, a creative effort that helped meet an aggressive timeline. MTP allows teams to construct multiple building components in an offsite, temperature-controlled environment simultaneously with the building structure and site work. MTP allows for the construction of all repetitive room types to be constructed offsite. With a program consisting of repetitive room types such as exam and toilet rooms, the project represented a great opportunity to gain efficiency in the schedule. With early commitment and participation by the owner; the design, manufacturing, and build team worked in unison to coordinate the most efficient application and planning layouts possible to maximize the return.
Photo Credit to Halkin Mason Photography
Inside and out, Cooper’s Moorestown Campus was designed with community in mind. The location signals Cooper’s commitment to patient experience, but that sense of belonging is amplified as community members step through the door. Immersive screens throughout the facility draw visitors into local natural scenes, taking them on a vibrant, calming, and memorable journey while they wait. Reinforcing this connection, a café marketplace and communal space offer opportunities for social interaction, while the selected materials provide comfort, warmth, and respite.
Unique materials and concepts were used to create a hospitality-based environment for the community. Elements like warm wood tones employed in wall and ceiling panels, layered of stone, textiles, and textured glass provide an elegant ambiance. The retail nature of the previous space meant floor-to-floor heights of 20 feet, which allowed the designers to draw the dynamic nature of the exterior within the space, carrying eye-catching pops of red to the interior environment via backlit wall panels and geometric patterns.
Project Credits: Halkin Mason Photography
Architect: Array Architects
Owner/ Developer: Cooper University Health Care
Consultants/Contractor, etc.:
O’Donnell & Naccarato
Best Healthcare Planning
Highland Associates
Lewis S. Goodfriend & Associates
VDA
PDM Constructors
The VALUE of the ARCHITECT Series is a periodic ARTICLE, issued as a BLOG, by the AIA-NJ Public Awareness Committee. The Article’s mission is to EDUCATE the General Public and INFORM an audience of those who work with Architects, deal with the subject of Architecture, and affect the Professional Practice of Architecture. The series was conceived by Edward N. Rothe, FAIA, Past President of AIA New Jersey, and award-winning architect and businessman.
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Architects are creative professionals educated, trained, and experienced in the art and science of building design and licensed to practice architecture. Their designs respond to client needs, wants, and vision, protect public safety, provide economic value, are innovative, inspire, and contribute positively to the community and the environment.
Founded in 1857, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) consistently works to create more valuable, healthy, secure, and sustainable buildings, neighborhoods, and communities. Through a dynamic network of more than 250 chapters and more than 95,000 member architects and design professionals, the AIA advocates for public policies that promote economic vitality and public well-being. Members adhere to a code of ethics and conduct to ensure the highest professional standards. The AIA provides members with tools and resources to assist them in their careers and businesses as well as engaging civic and government leaders and the public to find solutions to pressing issues facing our communities, institutions, nation, and world. The organization’s local chapter, AIA New Jersey, has served as the voice of the architectural profession in the Garden State since 1900. Based in Trenton, AIA New Jersey has over 2,000 members across six sections. For more information, please visit http://www.aia-nj.org
By Stacey Ruhle Kliesch, AIA, AIA NJ Advocacy Consultant | Posted in Business | Tagged: #AdaptiveReuse, #ValueOfTheArchitect, ArrayArchitects | Comments (0)
Architects are creative professionals, educated, trained, and experienced in the art and science of building design, and licensed to practice architecture. Their designs respond to client needs, wants and vision, protect public safety, provide economic value, are innovative, inspire and contribute positively to the community and the environment.
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