BayCare Mease Countryside Hospital

With the addition of a parking garage across the street from the hospital’s main building, the project team wanted to tie the architectural language across the pedestrian bridge from the building to the structure. As hundreds of drivers a day cross under the pedestrian bridge, an eye-catching cladding feature came to mind as the perfect solution for the bridge. The desired effect needed to provide protection from the glaring Florida sun while also allowing airflow and cross breezes to pass through the bridge and garage stairwells. The feeling of openness was critical, while the requirement for fall prevention was required.

Approach

Freeman-White worked with Parasoleil to take a standard pattern, Winter Branches©, which is designed with 16% openness, and re-draw that pattern to achieve a larger openness percentage while still maintaining the design aesthetic of the organic branches shade effect. This “customized standard” approach was applied to all areas of the installation and created a connecting element across three corners of the parking garage, across the pedestrian bridge, and to the hospital itself. The bridge panels were mounted to the pre-fabricated bridge on the ground before it was craned into place, making for an efficient and effective installation process. The combination of pattern openness requirements, Florida coastal wind load requirements, and installation expertise made Parasoleil's panels the perfect fit for this project.