ICON - Winter 2016

incorporated into a handful of design projects glob-
ally, though Pierce says the Christus Spohn Hospital,
which includes 426,000 square feet of new construc-
tion and 128,000 square feet of renovation, will be
the most thorough and high-profile case study for
the fledgling standard to date. He has presented
RELi to enthusiastic audiences at The American
Institute of Architects, USGBC, the White House,
and the United Nations, but says it will likely be
several years or more before it receives widespread
application, as building awareness and support for
new standards is necessarily a long-term process. Yet
he is extremely optimistic: “It’s moving much faster
than LEED did in its very early days, so that’s a good
indicator of how fast it will be adopted.”
Corpus Christi, with its proximity to the hurri-
cane-prone Gulf of Mexico, sky-high poverty rate,
and the enormous presence of the petrochemical
industry enveloping it, was ranked the third riskiest
city in the country for disasters by Sperling’s (a rank-
ing of the best places to live), so it’s not surprising
that the backers of Christus Spohn wanted to invest
in resilience measures. The building is designed
to function at full capacity during a Category 3

hurricane (at a minimum) and incorporates bul-
letproof glass to protect key locations in the event
of a terrorist attack or other vio-
lence. A four-day supply of diesel
to operate backup generators will
be stored on-site, along with a
three-day supply of food for all
patients and staff, and 12 gallons
of water per bed.

But Courtney Johnston, the director of design for interiors at the Perkins+Will Dallas office who oversaw interior design work for the project, says strategies to mitigate the social and psychological impacts of disaster were given equal consideration to those centered around the physical threats. The existing Christus Spohn Hospital is one of the largest employers in the region and is viewed as a de facto community center, acting as a central gathering place during extreme weather events. One of the signature features of the new hospital will be a large chapel at the front of the building, a nod to the spiritual needs of the community, which both health issues and disasters have a way of amplifying.

For patients who can’t make it to the chapel for worship, the design team has devised a closed-circuit television broadcast system that will allow patients to view the services in their rooms.

“Resilience is about strengthening community connectivity,” says Johnston.

“And I think the community
here really looks up to the
hospital to provide services,
not only from a healthcare
perspective, but from a com-
munity standpoint.”
Both she and Pierce note
that the connection between resilience and interior
design has become a frequent topic in conversations
with their colleagues over the past few months. The
connection can seem obscure and amorphous at
times, but only through having such conversations
will it become clear. “As interior designers, we have
to be at the table in those discussions in the early
planning stages of a project so we understand how
the overall design will respond to the challenges,”
says Johnston. “We need to hear the ‘why,’ because
one day when we get down to the level of detail that
we are working at, it gives us the opportunity to
come up with new solutions.”