St. Francis Hospital Medical Center

The Innovation + Learning Center at Saint Francis Hospital is a new destination where teams of medical practitioners and administrators can gather and collaborate in state-of-the-art conference and training rooms, research space and the health science library. The 11,800 SF space exists within what was a medical library located on the first floor of the research and education building. Within the scope of this project the existing library has become a condensed and focused component of a larger program. This unique environment provides a platform for team building distinct from the clinical environment of the greater hospital. A multifaceted program was developed through a combination of open discussion zones, high-tech conference spaces and simulation workshops. All of the separate pieces of the Center congregate and connect around a collaborative commons that combines low-tech peer-to-peer interaction with high-tech tools and surfaces. This collaborative commons contains nodes to pursue a range of activities from quiet reading and breaks to team exercises and larger assemblies. Many of the spaces have the ability to leverage the real estate of the commons by the use of operable partitions and movable walls, thereby engaging the activities of the adjacent spaces across the typical boundaries of the rooms.