E34 – From Friction to Opportunity: Aligning Program, Community, and Climate in Hospital Campus Design
Hospitals are expanding to the edges of their campuses at the same time communities are demanding greater environmental responsibility, public access to open space, and resilience to extreme weather. These pressures often create friction between program growth, climate response, and community context.
This session demonstrates how those tensions became design drivers for the new R.M. Schulze Family Heart and Stroke Critical Care Center at NCH in Naples, Florida.
Through early and sustained engagement with city leaders and the public, the hospital and design team redefined the campus boundary in alignment with the city’s comprehensive plan. By consolidating cardiovascular services into a single addition to the main hospital, the project improved clinical adjacencies and patient care while reducing overall footprint and preserving land for expanded public outdoor amenities.
Panelists from the hospital and design team will share how climate, context, and program were addressed as interconnected forces—informing site strategy, building performance, and the threshold between campus and community. Attendees will see how resiliency measures, land-use decisions, and specialty service planning can work together to create a hospital building that is both high-performing and community-integrated.
Participants will leave with a replicable framework for turning common campus constraints into opportunities for better healthcare environments.
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