Comfort Meets Gothic Architecture at New Sanford Hospital

FARGO, N.D. — At the end of July, Sanford Health gave the public a peek at what patient rooms will look like in the largest hospital project in North Dakota history. The 11-story Sanford Fargo Medical Center is set to open this month and is expected to serve 200,000 people in the Fargo-Moorhead area.

The color aesthetic for most of the 1 million-square-foot hospital, including inside the 384 patient rooms, is soothing and earthy with paintings of native North Dakota flowers. One of Sanford Health’s highest priorities was to ensure each room is bathed in natural sunlight, and the X-shape of the building will allow each room to have an unobstructed view of the sprawling 100-acre campus in southwest Fargo.

“Natural light can be such a powerful tool in the healing process and in promoting positive well-being of patients, staff and guests. We optimized the size and placement of the windows in the lobby’s design to allow for maximum light,” said Paul Richard, the medical center’s president, in a statement.

With a nearly $500 million price tag, Sanford Health has spared no expense in adding distinctive gothic features that characterize all of its properties. The health system paired up with Dallas-based architects HKS and construction company Mortenson in Minneapolis to design and build the expansive Fargo facility. The hospital’s lobby area covers 4,000 square feet and rises to a dramatic 44 feet at its highest point. Reception houses a grand piano next to a main lobby, gift shop, chapel and dining areas. Public seating is on the first floor, and surgery waiting areas on the second and third floors feature views of the lobby below.

While the hospital’s entrance is grand in scale and style, the 345-square-foot patient rooms have been designed to feel cozy and comfortable. Labor, delivery, recovery and surgery rooms will include a family area, complete with sleeper sofa for overnight stays. Patients won’t have to hear rolling laundry carts go by, as a linen pass-through system similar to modern-day laundry shoots will be included to minimize patient disruption.
“Designing a new medical center from the ground up is an extraordinary opportunity to do things right for our patients,” said Kelby Krabbenhoft, Sanford Health president and CEO, in a statement at the time of the project’s 2011 announcement. “This project and other system developments around the world are a credit to the vision of past and current boards, and the administrations of our legacy organizations and all of our staff involved today. They deliver on the promise we made to expand health care, research and education as well as employment and economic benefits.”
The giant campus is being built to allow for future expansion, and patient rooms have been designed to be flexible and adapt to changing services over time if necessary. Each patient room, with the exception of the labor, delivery and recovery rooms, is the same size to allow for smooth transitions.
Sanford Health plans to staff more than 7,000 employees at its Fargo medical facility. The health provider has poured more than $600 million into improving its facilities throughout northern Minnesota and the Dakotas.