E86 – The Death of Schematic Design: Lessons From Two Interventional Platform Projects at UVA Health
In 2020, UVA Health opened its University Hospital Expansion (UHE)—a bespoke, greenfield Interventional Platform where structural grids and vibration profiles were optimized for 21st-century technology. Today, the same UVA team is attempting to install next-generation Guided Imaging Suites into the existing hospital’s legacy footprint. The difference is stark: while the new build allowed for a traditional design cadence, the renovation has proven that for high-acuity retrofits, Schematic Design (SD) is effectively dead.
This session uses the contrast between UVA’s "Ideal State" (UHE) and "Reality State" (Renovation) to argue for a "Speed-to-Detail" methodology in complex retrofits. In a constrained renovation, deferring technical details to Design Development is a recipe for six-figure change orders. When the floor-to-floor heights are fixed and the column grid is immovable, equipment planning, magnetic shielding, and structural engineering must be solved at the "napkin sketch" phase.
Moderated by Introba, this panel—featuring the Architect (Perkins&Will), the Equipment Planner (Introba), and the Owner (UVA Health)—will deconstruct the "Reverse Engineering" required to fit 2026 technology into a 1980s building. We will demonstrate how "skipping" the vague SD phase in favor of an accelerated, technically rigorous deep-dive prevented schedule delays and aligned clinical aspirations with engineering reality.
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