West Jefferson Medical Center – Southwing Patient Tower, NICU, and Nursery

The renovation of the eight-floor Southwing Tower—the hospital’s largest patient tower—was a part of the hospital’s multi-year plan to transform and modernize the campus. Completed in phases constructing two floors at a time, it included the renovation of all patient rooms, a new neonatal ICU with supporting spaces, and surgery recovery spaces.

The patient rooms in the tower were small by current standards, and the bathrooms, which were on the exterior wall, blocked most of the view to the outside. STBA worked with the team at WJMC to develop a strategy to expand the patient rooms and transform the outdated exterior. By eliminating the concrete “bird beak” protrusions from the façade and erecting a new exterior wall beyond the original one, an additional 42 square feet was gained in each patient room. The bathrooms were then moved adjacent to the interior corridor wall which created a sound buffer between the public corridor and the private patient space while securing wide-ranging views of the outdoors from the patient rooms. The NICU and on the third floor was enlarged to make bays more private, add an isolation room, and add a Parent Infant Room.