In 2005, Bellevue Hospital completed construction of a modern, five-story Ambulatory Care Pavilion. This open concept structure, designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, created a soaring atrium at the 1st Avenue entrance, and exposed handsome carved-stone friezes that were original to the building. GDS, Inc. provided the signage for this "Modernization Project". The sign design used materials and colors with a modern feel: stainless steel and bright white painted finishes, with bold primary color splashes.

Bellevue Hospital had historically referred to their different buildings with a letter designation. For the Modernization Project, the Hospital decided to expand the use of the letter designations to include the letter "B" for the new Ambulatory Care Pavilion.

 

 After the successful completion of the Ambulatory Care Pavilion, the Hospital desired to carry over the new Wayfinding Design into the signs for the existing facility. This signage had not been upgraded in its entirety in two decades. A limited-scope project had updated some of the signage in 2001, but the information had become outdated. New signage needed to be visually appealing, multilingual, and easily changeable.
Building Letters / Colors:

A - Administration Building / Purple
B - Ambulatory Care Building / Dark Blue
C - Outpatient Mental Health Building / Orange
D - Outpatient Mental Health Building / Yellow
F - Main Corridor ?Link? between buildings / Grey
G - Emergency Department / Green
H - Hospital Building / Light Blue
"Historic Sign" marking the original
entrance to Bellevue Hospital		  
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CHALLENGE: To direct to different elevator banks within the same building. The A Building has two elevator banks that access different departments.

SOLUTION: GDS suggested adding “East” and “West” to differentiate the A Building elevator banks, and developed symbols for use on lollipop signs and floor graphics.

CHALLENGE: To Post Signage in Three Major Languages. 
The Hospital identified English, Spanish and Traditional Chinese as the three primary languages used by Patients and Visitors. They requested all wayfinding signs be in these three languages.

SOLUTION: To avoid overwhelming signs with "information clutter", Building Icons and Universal Symbols were used wherever possible. Text was limited on overhead signage to only the most needed destinations.  The Building Colors create graphic fields to contain the information and maintain visual order.

CHALLENGE: Signing for the Scale and Volume of the Hospital.  The main lobby and the F Link of Bellevue Hospital are very large in scale, but can seem crowded due to the volume of people. In this case, the information needs multiple opportunities to be seen, as one sign may be obscured at any given time.

SOLUTION: GDS used many different types of signs to maximize their visibility. Overhead signs, floor graphic bands, projecting signs and wall directories all work in conjunction to direct the flow.

 
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With the new wayfinding signage functioning well on the ground level, the goal of the Hospital was to carry it throughout the upper levels of the H Building. The existing wayfinding scheme of the upper floors divides the building into North / South / East and West. GDS incorporated this scheme into the design through the use of Wing Icons, which appear on all major wayfinding signs, including floor graphic medallions.

The new wayfinding signage adds value to the quality of service provided by Bellevue Hospital. By making it easier for the to find their doctors or services, the new signs improve overall patient satisfaction.

The burden on hospital staff to stop and re-direct lost patients has been reduced. The administration has committed to improving the look and functionality of their signs, and will continue their partnership with GDS to make it happen.

 
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