The Guggenheim Pavilion, occupying an entire city block, was a critical first step in a massive reconstruction and renovation program to consolidate hospital facilities scattered ad hoc in multiple other buildings and to establish Mount Sinai as one of the foremost academic medical centers in the United States. The 900,000-square-foot building houses 625 medical/surgical/ICU beds (more than half of all patient beds in Mount Sinai), an expanded emergency room, nuclear and rehabilitative medicine, admitting, administrative offices, hospital kitchen and cafeteria, all transferred from outmoded buildings. New program elements include 22 state-of-the-art operating rooms, a conference center, auditorium, chapel, synagogue and, for the first time, a main hospital lobby that serves as a gateway to the entire medical center with improved access, security, and ambience and amenities.
The building is clad in brick and limestone to better integrate with neighbors. It rises from a rectangular base housing operating suites, transplant centers and related facilities. Above are three in-patient towers angled to provide views to the outdoors or alternately, into the building’s skylit atriums. The design rests on the conviction that a good environment aids the healing process.
The Guggenheim Pavilion received a Grand Award for Environmental Improvement from the Associated Landscape Contractors of America in 1990 and a Certificate of Engineering Excellence from the New York Association of Consulting Engineers in 1993.
Design Team: I.M. Pei, Design Partner; C. C. Pei, Design Architect
Pei Cobb Freed & Partners