Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, United Arab EmiratesType of facility: Multispecialty hospital
Project architect: HDR
Construction manager: Arabtec and Aktor Joint Venture
Scheduled completion: Late 2012
Size: 2.2 million square feet
Cost: $2.5 billion
Cost per square foot: $1,136
When it opens in late 2012, the Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi hospital will be just like any other hospital. Or, more specifically, just like any other $2.5 billion facility built on a 260-acre man-made island.
“The Abu Dhabi project was beyond belief,” says contest judge Sally Gammon, president and CEO of the Allentown, Pa.-based Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network. “Two and a half billion dollars—can you even imagine? It feels elegant. It feels more like a luxury hotel—and yet a luxury hotel where it does feel comfortable. It's not ostentatious.”
View the Design Awards photo gallery
Read more profiles of the Design Awards winners According to the project's design director, Alex Wu, a principal with HDR architects, that was the intention.
“The goal of the project was to create a different approach to healthcare: a deinstitutionalizing and blurring of the lines between hospital and hospitality,” Wu says, adding that another goal was to “be five years ahead of state-of-the-art.”
The 2.2 million-square-foot institution is being built by Mubadala Healthcare, a division of the Mubadala Development Co. that manages a large portfolio of local, regional and international investments, projects and initiatives, and whose sole shareholder is the government of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. The facility will be run by the Cleveland Clinic and is being constructed on the newly created Sowwah Island in the Persian Gulf. “It's a unique place on the planet,” says Doug Wignall, HDR's international healthcare director.
The hospital's neighbors include a hotel, stock exchange and office buildings. Architects are seeking to create an academic village setting by using open public spaces and varying building heights.
The hospital includes a VIP floor and a floor reserved for the royal family as well. The royal floor includes secured entry, private elevator access and rooms not only for family members accompanying the patient, but also private quarters for the patient's doctors.
