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Imagine a health care facility where natural light helps lift a patient’s mood, where the art on the wall soothes anxiety, where aromatherapy spreads a sense of serenity, and piano music greets visitors as they come in. That describes the future ambiance of the University of Miami Health System’s newest outpatient facility, UHealth SoLé Mia, a seven-story, 370,000-square-foot medical center in North Miami-Dade scheduled to open this fall.
“From the onset, our guiding principle in the design of this building has been to promote healing and recovery in patients, to support their caregivers and family, and to provide our staff with an environment that is conducive to delivering the best care,” says Vandana Pathak, the Assistant Vice President for Ambulatory Service at UHealth.
Long before the official groundbreaking in 2022, architects and UHealth leadership met with patients, family members, caregivers and staff to gather information about how to meet each group’s needs. The resulting design incorporated those suggestions while also focusing on the pillars of healing architecture.
At its core, the tenet of healing architecture centers around the idea that our built environment can affect both our physical and mental well-being.
In other words, where we receive treatment plays a crucial role in the process of patient recovery.
“Hospitals and ambulatory medical centers are not places where people necessarily want to go,” Pathak adds, “Many are receiving bad news or have a family member receiving treatment for a serious illness. We have to be mindful of each element of healing and build an environment that makes the experience more pleasant.”
Lindsay Thornton, M.D., the facility’s medical director, agrees, pointing out that more than 500 stakeholders helped shape the space where they will work, receive medical care, or provide care. She calls architecture’s role in the healing process the most exciting aspect of the building.
“As both a physician and someone who has experienced the hospital setting as a caregiver to a loved one, I know how crucial this is,” she says. “Every detail has been thoughtfully designed with healing in mind. This isn’t just a building — it’s an environment that enhances care, restores the spirit, and brings a sense of peace to everyone who walks through its doors.”
UHealth SoLé Mia will bring high-quality academic care to a densely-populated area that includes Aventura, North Miami Beach, North Miami, and surrounding communities. It will be home to physicians and staff from Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, the only National Cancer Institute-designated center in South Florida, and Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, the top-rated eye hospital in the nation, as well as the Desai Sethi Urology Institute, a leader in urology care.
Other services will include primary care and specialty care, from cardiology to neurology, endocrinology, and orthopedics. In fact, UHealth SoLé Mia will house a new strategic collaboration with the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) to establish a comprehensive musculoskeletal program at this location and enhance all orthopedic care, including imaging, physician services, ambulatory surgeries, and rehabilitation.
In hard numbers, UHealth SoLé Mia will have 33 infusion chairs, 10 operating rooms, three interventional radiology procedure suites, three endoscopy/GI procedure suites, comprehensive imaging and ancillary services, and more than 100 clinic rooms. The facility, located at 2111 SoLé Mia Way, will have direct access from Biscayne Boulevard and feature an adjoining parking garage with 1,200 spaces and valet service.
But there’s much more to UHealth SoLé Mia than bricks and mortar.
“We are creating a well-curated experience,” Pathak says. “We want patients, families, and staff to feel welcomed.”
Grounding UHealth SoLé Mia in the principles of healing architecture means its design seeks to appeal to the five senses in order to reduce stress, prioritize comfort, promote safety, and improve care delivery and efficiency. Here are some notable features:
- A reflection garden with views of the Atlantic Ocean and a man-made lagoon with a beach will offer a tranquil outdoor space for meditation for both patients and staff.
- Floor-to-ceiling windows will allow for natural light indoors. (Exposure to sunlight regulates our circadian rhythm and can reduce stress levels, according to studies.)
- Expansive lobby areas and hallways enhance comfort and calm while also optimizing traffic flow.
- Curated artwork displayed around the building will highlight what South Florida is best known for: water, nature, flora and fauna.
- Aromatherapy will be infused throughout the building.
- Comprehensive cancer support services for patients and their families will offer aromatherapy, massage, art therapy, cooking demonstrations, and acupuncture.
- Live music — piano players, as well as accompanying musicians — will greet visitors at the main entrance.
- Construction-related materials, such as flooring, casework, paint and finishes, are environmentally friendly and do not emit harmful chemicals known as VOCs.
- Waiting rooms and consult rooms will allow for privacy, and larger spaces will accommodate families.
- Signage that is both clear and plentiful will help patients and visitors get from Point A to Point B easily. Benches are included along the way for rest.
The design also hews to some of the wishes of providers and staff. In fact, Pathak says staff wellness and comfort “is incredibly important. We wanted to make sure to provide enough space for respite both inside and outside, as well as space that was convenient for staff and close to their work environment.”
In addition to more staff lounges strategically placed throughout the building, these rooms will also integrate artwork, natural light through window views, and “adequate space to take a breath during a long day at work.”
In the initial schematic design — when architects and designers develop drawings for a project — the UHealth SoLé Mia team advanced a layout that addressed other needs, too. These included accessible medication refrigerators, more pneumatic tubes to connect departments, and workstations that are closer to patients.
The idea of design as an important factor in a patient’s recovery has been around since early times.
Ancient Greeks and Egyptians built healing temples and centers that combined medical treatment with spiritual rituals. Much of that practice was lost in Western medicine, but it began to draw serious attention in 1984 when Roger Ulrich published a study titled “View through a Window May Influence Recovery from Surgery.” Analyzing the medical records of patients who had undergone gallbladder surgery at a suburban hospital in Pennsylvania, Ulrich found that patients with a view of nature:
- Needed fewer painkillers
- Had shorter hospital stays
- Received fewer negative comments in nurses’ notes compared to those with a view of the brick wall
This landmark study launched a field of evidence-based design that has grown in popularity, says Joanna Lombard, a registered architect and professor at UM’s School of Architecture.
Subsequent studies validated the concept that aesthetics can have a direct and measurable influence on health.
One study in Sweden found that operating rooms with skylights and views of courtyards reduced stress among surgeons and surgical staff, contributing to better teamwork and communication.
And even the kind of art that hangs on walls can affect mood. Patients responded better to landscapes than to modern art. “Modern art actually increased blood pressure,” explains Lombard, who is also a founding member of the UM Built-Environment Behavior and Health Research.
“In a health care setting, you don’t need provocative. You need comfort.”
Over the years, the field of evidence-based healthcare design has amassed a collection of supporting studies and advocates. The American Institute of Architects Academy of Architecture for Health now hosts design awards and maintains a Knowledge Repository of Research that includes downloadable case studies that can be downloaded.
Lombard uses these in the classroom to explore current trends.
Another organization, the Center for Health Design, also collects information on facility design and promotes the application of design “to improve health care performance, patient satisfaction, staff productivity, and safety.”
These concepts were at “top of mind” for UHealth SoLé Mia designers, Lombard adds, though some elements may not necessarily earn the kind of attention beautiful art or piped-in music usually get. She cites features such as signage, well-lit paths, and parking accessibility that have the power to influence a patient’s mood.
“They were incredibly thoughtful in integrating elements that will help a patient on their [health] journey,” she adds.
This attention to detail has been embraced by physicians and nurses who want their patients to feel comfortable — and nurtured — in their surroundings.
- Robert Schwartz, M.D., FAAFP, a family medicine physician with UHealth, believes a thoughtfully designed environment is like a silent partner that can provide physical and psychological comfort to patients and their families. He learned this young, as his mother and sister were interior designers who showed him how the use of color, the abundance of sunlight and the addition of plants in a room can “mitigate the sterility” of most settings, not just hospitals and clinics.
What’s more, he has anecdotal proof. Patients who see him at the Lennar Foundation Medical Center at UM’s Coral Gables campus “100% prefer” it to his other clinic offices that don’t have the more pleasingly aesthetic features. They don’t mind driving longer distances to experience it, either. He cites Lennar’s hanging art piece of more than 200 hand-blown ibises as a patient favorite — and an example that contributes positively to the overall delivery of care.
“It does change a patient’s mood, no doubt about it,” Dr. Schwartz says of the art and the large windows that allow for sunlight to stream in throughout the day. “I’m glad this is finally being recognized and applied [to health care settings]. It’s an important issue that has gone unspoken for a long time.”
