Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine

Project Details

Project Description

As one of the leading healthcare providers in the country, Kaiser Permanente has created a new School of Medicine to train the next generation of leaders in medicine.

Kaiser Permanente sought a school unfettered by the traditional pedagogy of academic medical centers, but also detached from typical campus amenities. This pushed the design team - led by CannonDesign's Yazdani Studio - to reimagine the typology entirely. How does one envision, on a tight urban site, all the components needed for first-rate medical education?

The resulting design is an entire campus within a building. The 80,000 sf building houses simulation, flex classrooms, cafeteria, lecture hall, computer center, small group learning, collaboration zones, and outdoor recreation areas to create “the school of medicine as a laboratory.”

Our team’s reevaluation of administrative and other areas freed up more than 50% of the building to be programmed as flexible, almost hospitality-like zones for students to study, workout, or even meditate. This is a far cry from the 8-18% of ‘student life’ square footage in the precedent buildings reviewed during the design process.

This approach redefines medical education, preparing a new generation of physicians to influence positive change within the Kaiser Permanente system and in hospitals, homes, schools, workplaces and communities at large.