University Hospital at The Ohio State University Medical Center embodies a novel approach to healing, discovering and teaching. To experience the new hospital is to look outward: to the campus, to the city, to the state of Ohio, and to the future. The building rises 26 stories as the largest hospital project in the U.S. for 2026 and the largest in The Ohio State University’s history, standing with purpose as a testament to medical excellence.

With more than 800 private patient rooms and light-filled spaces, the seamless integration of environment, people, services, processes and culture supports a transformational moment for the academic medical campus.

Human-Scaled Experience at Monumental Scale

Designed for clarity, comfort and dignity, the building breaks down scale in ways that help people feel grounded and supported during moments of vulnerability, with a restrained material palette that anchors the experience — a brick podium grounds the building in historic campus language while Portuguese mocha cream stone with high‑performance glass shape the tower above.

The result is a campus-defining form: A hospital that feels both substantial and humane, where architecture, experience and place-making come together to support healing at every scale.

Novel and Functional Healthcare Solutions

In the initial programming and concept design effort, our team audited the condition, usage and utility of all buildings on the existing medical center campus in order to optimize the use of existing structures in combination with University Hospital. A highly-integrated, multidisciplinary team studied the programmatic, planning, operational, functional, master planning, engineering and architectural aspects of adding a large patient care tower to the existing campus — this included the potential benefits of off-site support services to maximize space efficiency in existing buildings.

Parallel work streams for programming and design challenged all parties to think differently — to produce an innovative outcome and a holistic solution appropriate for a world-class academic medical center. 

Data-Driven Design Informs Innovation

Using parametric modeling, the design team was able to effectively address phasing strategies, optimized functional flows, travel times and distances throughout the campus. This data-centric approach allowed our team to evaluate various options relative to project operational goals and cost targets, thus managing costs from the early stages of design documentation.