A sibling building

The exterior design reflects the existing hospital, beloved by the Port Townsend community, creating a sibling building to the 2015 addition it connects to. The new two-story volume—matching in colors, materials, and proportions—offers a more subdued version of the adjacent three-story building, which serves as the hospital’s primary entrance. The facades work together in concert and bookend the exterior design as patients and staff approach the campus.

The design team’s creative site planning allowed for much-needed expanded parking, an important driver for hospital outpatient services as well as providing a warm and welcoming arrival experience.

Surging demand

Nearly every specialty service that Jefferson Healthcare provides has doubled or in some cases tripled over the last decade. As a result, the hospital has quickly outgrown its existing facilities. To meet surging demand, this project includes a 19,000 SF infill renovation that relocates and expands critical infrastructure, including the OB/GYN clinic, imaging, surgery, support services, administration, and the hospital kitchen and café.

A new two-story, 37,000 SF medical office building is integrally connected to the infill facility as a single structure. It includes two ambulatory ORs and associated pre/post-op spaces at the ground level, as well as offices, a staff lounge, and specialty clinics on the second level. Expanded outpatient services include medical oncology, dermatology, and wound care. New services include radiation oncology, neurology, pulmonology, and ear, nose & throat care.

Design-build done right

The design-build team collaborated with the client, user groups, and key stakeholders to develop innovative phasing solutions that integrate the campus holistically while maintaining circulation and connections between other campus buildings. Like many hospital renovations and expansions, this project scope abutted the major internal circulation path connecting the most crucial components—the Emergency Department to Imaging/Surgery and beds—where disruption was not an option. The sequencing allowed Jefferson to maintain operations throughout construction with minimal impact to the patient, family, and staff experience.

Jefferson Healthcare initially envisioned up to 105,000 SF of new construction, but sharp increases in construction and labor costs and issues with supply chains and material availability challenged the client to rethink the scope and scale of the project. ZGF facilitated workshops with hospital leadership that allowed them to revisit their project goals and strategically develop a scaled-down vision for the project that still addressed current needs for additional space while accommodating future growth and anticipated demand for services over the next decade. 

No-cost sustainability

While cost, schedule, and reducing risk were paramount to the project’s success, the client also challenged the design-build team to find ways to improve both climate health and human health. ZGF and Abbott employed a three-pronged sustainability approach: going electric; sourcing low-carbon materials; and removing chemicals of concern.

The team set sustainability goals early on, ran cost and carbon numbers, and calibrated specifications throughout the project—staying flexible in the pursuit of sustainable products that would meet the hospital’s requirements while promoting health equity in the upstream and downstream communities where the building energy and materials come from. The project demonstrates it is possible for a rural hospital to integrate healthy, low-carbon strategies in all aspects of design—from mechanical to civil and structural to interiors—without compromising the hospital’s mission to put every dollar toward patient care.

Sustainable features include:

• Clean energy: All-electric design (except for cooking), powered by 96% carbon-free, non-emitting sources like hydropower
• Decarbonization: Low-carbon concrete and steel for all structural and civil applications, reducing the project’s embodied carbon emissions by 32%
• Healthy materials: Bio-based, PVC-free interior finishes including flooring, carpet, wall protection, and ceiling tiles—without sacrificing performance
• Indoor air quality: Fresh ventilation air via a Dedicated Outdoor Air System that includes heat recovery of exhaust air streams
• Water conservation: No cooling tower, which reduces potable water use, lowering utility costs and carbon footprint

Healthy interiors

The interior design palette was carefully curated to create a complementary aesthetic to adjacent existing hospital wings. The team modernized certain material selections with an emphasis on durability, sustainability, and an overall atmosphere of warmth and welcoming to patients and staff. In particular, wood accents and panoramic views to the landscape connect the interior to the special setting on the Peninsula. Healthy materials were key to the project’s sustainability goals—using PVC-free, biobased, and lower-carbon products wherever possible without sacrificing performance.