New St. Joseph's Hospital to open on Lake Oconee.
Restorative water elements and a green design make this healing center a healthy example of healthy living.
When a state-of-the-art hospital is built on Lake Oconee, it should look like it belongs there. And in this case, thanks to the conceptual design by nationally renowned hospital architects, Perkins & Will, it does.
By incorporating such natural elements as wood and stone – commonly known in the local vernacular as ‘the lodge look’, Perkins & Will have created an avant garde looking hospital that fits right in with the resort-like atmosphere of Lake Oconee.
The centerpiece of the hospital is a large pond and fountain. Patient rooms will be located in a scattering of separate buildings overlooking the peaceful view. Ground-level rooms will open onto their own patios. Second-floor rooms will have their own balconies. There will be twenty-five patient rooms planned from the outset, matching the existing Certificate of Need and Critical Access designation of St. Joseph’s East (formerly Minnie G. Boswell Memorial Hospital).
While you can’t consider it quintessential Lake Oconee lakefront property, “such water elements are soothing and restful, and a pleasant environment is crucial to healing,” says Robert S. Cowles, M.D., point man for a group of investors who will develop the hospital and its surrounding acreage, and lease it to St. Josephs Health System of Atlanta to operate.
With big window views to the beautiful landscaped grounds, gardens, and soothing water elements, it’s no wonder natural restorative power has played such an important role in the overall design. Cowles also adds that the new hospital will be “totally green” in its ecological design and architecture.
As such a marked departure from the typical hospital design, Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture has sat up and taken notice, asking to participate in the planning in order to develop a national model for future rollout across the country.
The entrance to the hospital will be directly across from Carriage Lane and a Shell service station on the west side of Georgia Highway 44.
$52 million is needed to build St. Joseph’s Hospital at Lake Oconee. A small group of investors are leading the charge, but Cowles adds, “I’ve asked people who have done this kind of thing before, and who have made investments of this nature, to get involved. We will be as much focused on fundraising with individual contributors and foundations as we will be with investors.”
He expects the hospital to grow quickly, and his vision includes a time in the not-so-distant future when even cardiac bypass surgery will be accomplished on an outpatient basis.
“Don’t laugh, we are that close,” he said seriously, gesturing with an almost imperceptible distance between his thumb and forefinger.