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PROJECT Seton Medical Center Renovation & Expansion, Austin
CLIENT Seton Healthcare Network
ARCHITECT PageSoutherlandPage
DESIGN TEAM Matthew F. Kreisle, III, AIA; Lawrence W. Speck, FAIA; Doug McClain; Kregg Elsass, AIA; Peter Hoffman, AIA; Jerald Segner
CONTRACTOR Vaughn Construction
CONSULTANTS Datum Engineers (structural); The Innova Group (medical planning); Parallel Solutions (medical equipment planning); Smith Seckman Reid (MEP); TBG Partners (landscape architecture)
PHOTOGRAPHER Tim Griffith Photographer

Seton Medical Center, the largest medical and surgical acute care center in Austin, was in desperate need of a facelift. In 2005, Seton commissioned PageSoutherlandPage to expand and renovate its 1970s-era brick building. The scope of the expansion included 110,000 square feet of new facilities, including a day surgery center, a chapel with adjacent garden, a main entranceway, and a "front door image" for the hospital. When the work was completed, both the physical identity of the building and its capacity were improved. The expansion increased the space for surgery facilities by 29 percent. Additions to the building included 13 operating rooms, 72 hospital recovery rooms, and a patient admitting and testing center. Another 75,000 square feet of the existing hospital were also renovated. The 185,000-square-foot project cost $27.5 million.

The firm updated the old brick building's physical identity using glass and light as sophisticated focal points for the design. Light also serves a functional purpose within the building. PageSoutherlandPage recognized the importance of natural light as a fundamental catalyst to the recovery of patients, and thus implemented frosted glass in the long northfacing volume to draw soft daylight into recovery rooms while providing a level of privacy from the outside world, a luxury that normal windows would not necessarily provide. Frosted glass is used similarly in the chapel to soften the harsh artificial light and emphasize feelings of serenity and safety while simultaneously maintaining a sense of privacy for those inside.

The interplay of light through glass also defines the style and personality of the building's exterior as exemplified in the glass structure that spans the space above the entrance. When lit from within at night, the mass glows softly, giving the hospital a gentle welcoming appearance to incoming patients. A feeling of order and medical precision is projected through the well-defined lines and angles of the structure, but not at the expense of visual aesthetic. Rather, science and beauty intertwine as if to express that the hospital is technologically advanced, but still human in its approach to treatment.

Design Awards juror Judith Dupré summed up the jury's thoughts in awarding the project: "We see the metaphoric possibilities of light and glass here. There is a need for hope and for faith in the unknown when you're going into a hospital. And I think that many of us felt that this building expressed, not only a sense of hope but a sense of precision, that if you're going in for major surgery obviously you want to feel that kind of reassurance."

--Emma Janzen is an editorial intern at Texas Architect.