Profile

The Kirklin Clinic, University of Alabama Health Services Foundation

Birmingham, Alabama
Completed 1992

A phased 5-story ambulatory care facility with fountain court and parking
 

Click on image to enlarge

The Kirklin Clinic was designed to consolidate the numerous outpatient clinics scattered throughout the University of Alabama's hospital district. Intersected by two city streets and surrounded by buildings of varying character and bulk, the site required a design that would complement UAB's existing medical center while maintaining its own unique identity — an integrated complex that could be built in stages without losing coherence.

Possession was taken of the entire site from the start and the complex designed as a cohesive whole. The solution involves a pair of stepped U-shaped structures that mirror each other across Sixth Avenue to form a fountain court in their embrace. The first structure, completed in 1992, will be linked by second-level bridges to the future Phase II building.

The clinic accommodates hundreds of physicians in 32 specialties with a dense labyrinth of operating suites, procedure rooms and 257 standardized examination rooms. Notwithstanding rigorous technical constraints, the clinical setting was humanized by the introduction of a central skylit atrium to aid orientation in this very large building and by the creation of other indoor and outdoor spaces designed to promote personal interaction and a sense of well-being. The whole aims to provide a healthy environment, both physical and psychological, for all the clinic's users, doctors, patients and family members alike.

Major Components

450,000 s/f clinic housing operating suites, procedure rooms, radiology and pharmacy facilities, 257 standardized examination rooms, monumental stair, all organized around living-room style waiting areas and a central 96-foot high atrium; 30,000 s/f fountain court; 300,000 s/f garage for 1,400 cars on 8 levels with 18,000 s/f retail arcade at street level; 2 pedestrian bridges (connecting clinic to new and existing parking)

Pei Cobb Freed & Partners services

Master Planning; Architectural Design; Complete Architectural Services; coordination with associate architect on construction documents and construction administration

Associate Architect

TRO/The Ritchie Organization, Birmingham, AL, and
Garikes Wilson Atkinson, Inc, Birmingham, AL

Structural

Lane Bishop York Delahay, Inc., Birmingham, AL 

Mechanical / Electrical

Newcomb & Boyd, Atlanta, GA

Profile   Projects   Contacts   Contents