Situated on the Chicopee River, Massachusetts’ historic Ludlow community has a rich industrial history. When HealthSouth outgrew its existing leased space in Ludlow Hospital, the organization called on Gresham Smith to design a new hospital to support their high-quality, patient-focused rehabilitative care. We recognized the need to not only replace and modernize the town’s rehab hospital, but we also knew we had to sustain a chapter of the town’s unique history. The new 74,000-square-foot hospital is located in the heart of a mixed-use development on a former mill site, honoring Ludlow’s past while looking to the future.
74k
square-feet
100k
salvaged bricks
240
feet of salvaged wood
Honoring Ludlow’s History
As the flagship building in the mill site’s redevelopment, our design team knew the hospital had to capture the history of the location. We ended up reusing 100,000 salvaged bricks from the old mill buildings on the hospital’s façade and we salvaged more than 240 feet of wooden beams from old stock houses for cladding interior walls. The building’s rhythm and proportions draw on the mill’s original architecture, complementing the building types and streetscapes found around Ludlow.
Planning that Promotes Mobility
HealthSouth wanted a new rehab environment that not only aided in the physical therapy process, but also promoted patient mobility. We created a spacious, well-organized therapy gym to support care, while new equipment and technology—such as HealthSouth’s AutoAmbulator, which safely places a patient in standing position and robotically helps their legs walk on a treadmill—were incorporated into the space. Long corridors are purposefully designed for gait training and floor patters promote movement.
Private Patient Rooms
In addition to offering river or courtyard views, as well as abundant natural light through large windows, each private patient room is ADA-compliant and intentionally spacious to help with patient mobility and staff access. Controls in each room are conveniently located at the patient’s bedside, which allow them to operate the lighting, TV and nurse call. Each room also features a barrier-free in-suite bathroom, where design accents such as pebble stones and natural earth tones simulate river stones found along the banks of the Chicopee.
Going for Gold
Sustainability was a key driver throughout the design process. We reused approximately 95 percent of the materials that were town down on the original site and nearly 30 percent of the building’s total materials came from sustainable resources. Additionally, the hospital was designed to reduce water usage by up to 45 percent and rooftop photovoltaic cells provide more than 10 percent of on-site renewable energy.Gallery
