UConn Outpatient Pavilion Opens

CENTERBROOK, Conn. -- The new eight-story Outpatient Pavilion on the UConn Health Campus in Farmington, Connecticut opened this month and is expected to serve some 4,000 visitors daily, both patients and their family members.

Centerbrook joined with HDR Architects of Princeton, New Jersey, to design the 306,000-square-foot building, which promotes “patient-centered care” by organizing outpatient clinical services in a way that makes sense for patients and by clustering together practices that frequently collaborate, according to Dr. Denis Lafreniere, medical director of the UConn Medical Group and associate dean of clinical affairs.

The building presents a glass curtain-walled façade that curves gently in plan in acknowledgement of the nearby curving facade of UConn’s John Dempsey Hospital. A lower three-story glass element wraps along the curve of the entry drive to present a clear and distinctive gesture of welcome to those being dropped off. In sync with a protective canopy, the extended arms of the three-story lobby and its bridge to the garage symbolically embrace entering patients and their families.

The transparency of the structure as a whole gives visitors a preview of the interior while providing a vista outward of a landscaped green. The building features gardens and roof decks to increase patient exposure to sunlight and the surrounding natural environment.

The $203 million project encompasses a 1,500-space parking garage plus 10 acres of site development. Centerbrook and HDR were part of a larger Design Build Team that included the Fusco Corporation of New Haven, Connecticut, paired with Clark Construction of Bethesda, Maryland.

Slated for LEED Silver, the building houses an array of outpatient services, among them: surgery; radiation oncology; gastroenterology; dental, plastic and neurosurgery; and physical therapy. Other features are training facilities for clinician scientist recruits, a café, a healing garden, and retail space for a pharmacy and optical shop. Approximately 600 employees will work in the building, which has a total of 235 exam rooms.

Nearby the Outpatient Pavilion on the Farmington campus, Centerbrook is designing an expansion and renovation of the UConn Health Center Academic Building, home to the University’s School of Medicine and School of Dental Medicine. Construction is expected to begin this spring. The firm also designed the recently opened Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, a $135 million project that is adjacent to the campus. These and other projects underway in the state are part of Connecticut’s effort to become a national leader in the field of biosciences.