Sunlight streams in from almost every angle of UPMC’s new glass-paneled hospital tower in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood.
Each of the 636 patient rooms has floor-to-ceiling windows, incorporating research showing the therapeutic effects of a connection with nature. The respite areas for workers to collect their thoughts during tough days follow the same design, and the main entrance is illuminated by large skylights.
The abundant light still catches dust from construction on the $1.3 billion, 17-story tower specializing in cardiology, neurology and transplants. UPMC is in the home stretch of the project, which started in 2022 and is set to wrap up in October.
A blitz of staff training and dress rehearsals will follow before more than 500 patients are transferred to the facility Jan. 24. In a single day, the massive expansion to UPMC Presbyterian Hospital will come alive.
“We anticipate we’ll be completely full within that week,” Courtney Hoffbauer, vice president of clinical practice operations and standardization at UPMC, said on a tour of the facility Friday.
The new building is called Kamin Tower, named after local philanthropists Daniel G. and Carole L. Kamin for their $65 million contribution to UPMC in July. It comes with 11 operating rooms, bringing the total number at the hospital to around 40.
UPMC officials are particularly excited about a pair of neurosurgery rooms that will share an MRI machine, allowing clinicians to scan a patient’s brain without having to halt the procedure and take them to another floor for imaging. The machine is equipped with an 8,000-pound magnet and can only be moved between rooms using a rail along the ceiling.
Each unit will be equipped with what UPMC is calling a “holodeck,” providing doctors, nurses and students at the teaching hospital an out-of-the-way area to discuss patient care, rather than huddling in a hallway. The circular holodecks will have large computer screens to display scans and other patient information.
Patient rooms come equipped with screens in the form of 75-inch televisions that can beam in an interpreter, project imaging results and hold video calls with far-away family members.
The first four floors will be known as “The Grove” and include a sit-down restaurant, nutrition education center, retail kiosks, art galleries and other spaces open to the broader community.
“It’s kind of like an airport,” said John Krolicki, vice president of facilities and support services at UPMC.
Hospital visitors will be able to access a gym and a multi-faith spiritual center. An adjacent outdoor area will host events like fitness classes and movie nights.
The Kamin Tower is the second of three major projects announced by UPMC in 2017.
The first — a 410,000-square-foot, $510 million expansion at UPMC Mercy in Pittsburgh’s Uptown neighborhood that houses the system’s vision and rehabilitation institutes — opened in 2023.
Construction is not yet underway on the planned eight-story UPMC Hillman Cancer Hospital in Pittsburgh’s Shadyside neighborhood.
For now, UPMC officials are focused on getting the Kamin Tower across the finish line.
“We are incredibly proud of every inch of this building,” said Sandy Rader, president of UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside Hospital.
