No, you're not sick or visiting an ailing loved one, you're on staycation! That's what you can tell yourself when you go to the swanky new $1.1 billion University Medical Center, opening Aug. 1. NOLA.com has a look inside the hospital, whose decor is more similar to a luxe airport or a boutique hotel (but not to be confused with the boutique hotel going up across the street) than a stale hospital.
The non-sterile look of the University Medical Center, taking the place of the shuttered Charity Hospital on Tulane Avenue, is intentional, according to Mackenzie Skene of NBBJ, the architecture firm behind the project, who is quoted in the story.
We wanted it to feel not like a hospital ... You want a hospital that doesn't assault your senses, strip your privacy. Some of these non-senses-assaulting features include nods to the art deco Charity Hospital, including a replica of the seal that was on the entrance of that hospital and sculptures mimicking the caste aluminum screens topping Charity, both in UMC's atrium; an elaborate, kaleidoscopic dangling sculpture in the atrium; patient rooms with a Victorian stencil print on the walls; waiting areas with sexy lighting and high-backed booth chairs; and an interior courtyard with a glass sculpture, water features and greenery.
The delicate looking exterior is actually able to withstand "the force of a 2-by-4 slamming the building at 200 mph" and its "power supply is designed to allow the hospital to operate for up to a week without any outside support or backup supplies," according to the article.
· Look inside the new $1.1 billion University Medical Center, opening Aug. 1 [NOLA.com]
· Proposed Mid-City Boutique Hotel Gets OK from City Planning Commission, Off to City Council Now [Curbed NOLA]
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