Atrium Health Pineville Unveils New Bed Tower

By HCO Staff

CHARLOTTE, N.C.—DLR Group | WMBA’s design for the new bed tower, known as Palmetto Tower, has expanded the patient capacity for the Atrium Health Pineville campus. Atrium officially opened the doors to new patients on Dec. 8, 2021, adding 45 new rooms to their operation.

“We’re proud to work with a client partner like Atrium Health who is recognized nationally by U.S. News and World Report as one of the best hospitals in this region,” said DLR Group | WMBA Principal John Beyer. “Our innovations in prefabricated design of patient rooms has not only become the standard for future design with Atrium, but it contributed directly to improving turnaround, opening two-months ahead of schedule while saving the client $10 Million dollars in construction costs.”

The new, eight-story, 236,000-square-foot patient tower increases capacity from 262 licensed beds to 307. Each room features flexible options to transition between a variety of care levels, from acute care rooms to an intensive care unit, to rehabilitative care. The top two floors of the Palmetto Tower remain open for future expansion

The prefabricated pods allowed multiple room units to be delivered and installed in one day. It eliminated punch lists on individual rooms, reduced weather delays, and risk of injuries due to single-sourcing up to 12 trades all within the production process at the factory. This method of design and construction also improves sustainability factors, reducing fuel and emissions through elimination of deliveries and local disturbances to the site, as well as minimizing on-site material waste.

DLR Group is an integrated design firm delivering architecture, engineering, interiors, planning, and building optimization for new construction, renovation, and adaptive reuse.