$360 Million Ford Hospital Opens

DETROIT — A Detroit automaker’s legacy in the healthcare market lives on with the recent opening of the Henry Ford West Bloomfield hospital.

The new $360 million, 750,000-square-foot hospital was designed by Detroit-based Kahn Architecture & Design — the same firm that designed the first Ford hospital in 1915 — to resemble a northern Michigan lodge.

Locally quarried fieldstone and river rock cover the exterior of the building, which is oriented so the 300 private patient rooms look upon a pond and the wooded landscape around the site.

Woodlands and wetlands nearby were preserved to reduce irrigation needs and 3,000 trees were planted on the property. There are plans to build walking and bike trails in the wooded area around the hospital, which planners hope will contribute to LEED certification for the hospital.
The environment posed a challenge to designers who had to work within complex zoning regulations and could build no higher than three stories. The hospital, which connects to the existing Henry Ford Medical Center, will staff 2,300 medical professionals, including 500 primary care physicians and specialists.

The hospital opened with 191 beds, and the remaining beds will go on line in 2011, according to hospital officials. The private rooms were designed after Ford asked medical staff, patients and families to tour prototype rooms and offer feedback on configuration, colors, fixtures, finishes and equipment.