Foster + Partners reveals Sheila and Eric Samson Pavilion

Foster + Partners has unveiled the new Sheila and Eric Samson Pavilion at Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic’s joint Health Education Campus in the US.

The 477,000ft² building in which medicine, nursing, dental and physician assistant students will study together, features a 27,000ft² central atrium that draws maximum light from a specially engineered roof.

The Sheila and Eric Samson Pavilion features expansive lawns and an 80ft-high central Delos M. Cosgrove courtyard. It forms a key part of the strategic masterplan developed by Foster + Partners for Cleveland Clinic.

Foster + Partners founder and executive chairman Norman Foster said: “The ambitions for the new health pavilion demanded the flexibility to accommodate emerging lines of scientific enquiry and newer technologies.

“The growing interdisciplinary nature of education and research requires more informal meeting and debating spaces, we have designed a building that encourages collaboration and builds a platform for practical learning and knowledge sharing.”

The design brings together the dental, nursing, and the university and Cleveland Clinic Lerner College medical education programmes that were earlier separate, into a single, four-storey building.

Key elements of each school are arranged with a series of layered shared spaces.

Foster + Partners has collaborated with Cleveland Clinic to design bespoke furniture pieces for the library, meeting rooms, deans’ suites and other working spaces.

The first floor of the Sheila and Eric Samson Pavilion has a conference centre featuring a 7,000ft² auditorium and 4,800ft² lecture hall.

Additionally, the building houses a laboratory for students and faculty to develop and test new technologies.