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Englewood Medical Center Englewood, NJ In the Spring of 2009, Englewood turned to GDS Signs to help plan, design, fabricate, and install a Wayfinding Signage System for the new 60,000 Kaplen Pavilion, a state-of-the-art facility housing an Emergency Care Center, and Orthopedic and Neurological Institute. |
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The current signage system being used
by Englewood was dated and difficult to maintain. Using slats with vinyl lettering, updates to the signs often resulted in slats being delivered that had slightly different color shades than the original sign, as well as differences in font styles, alignments, etc.
Englewood desired a sign system that was more contemporary in design and uniform throughout the hospital. Because change was so frequent (department moves, personnel additions/deletions, etc.), Englewood mandated a system that was easy, and economical, to change. GDS worked closely with Englewood’s architect, Freeman White, to come up with a new, modern design for all room and wayfinding signage, incorporating brushed aluminum accents with cream colored inserts, and the Englewood logo on the header insert of the sign. A special feature was that all signs located within the new Emergency Care Center were highlighted with a red accent strip, to clearly delineate the emergency function. Other types of signage included anodized aluminum dimensional letters and logos, as well as donor signage. |
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The greatest wayfinding challenge for Englewood was to effectively route visitors to the new Kaplen Pavilion, that was constructed adjacent to the main lobby. Although there was a separate main entrance for the Kaplen Pavilion, the highest percentage of visitors to the ED would still be coming from the parking garage through the main lobby, so Englewood needed to have signage that would effectively direct visitors to the new space.
Another huge wayfinding challenge was to make it easier for visitors and patients to get from Englewood’s parking garages, into the hospital for whatever services were required, and then back out to the parking garage to where their vehicles were parked. Englewood has two main garages, with the levels being labeled as numbers in one garage, and letters in the other. Visitors and patients were constantly getting lost on their return to their vehicles, having easily forgotten where they had parked. |
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GDS not only designed a simple wayfinding system within the new Emergency Care Center itself (using a combination of overhead signage, wall directionals, and elevator signage), but also changed the messages on any signage in the main hospital that had any bearing on navigation to and from the new space.
The colors were boldly reinforced within the parking garage itself, even to the extent of digital prints on each of the elevator doors. New overhead signage was implemented in the main lobby, where visitors purchase a parking token and head back to their vehicles, making it far easier to remember exactly where the vehicle was parked in the first place. Visitors may forget the garage level they parked on, but rarely forget the combination of level and color. This new garage Wayfinding System has been a major success at Englewood, leading to increased levels of patient and visitor satisfaction. |
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Prior to the implementation of the new GDS signage, Englewood suffered from
“signage overload”, with signs having been installed on the walls organically over time, without any unified approach from a design or wayfinding perspective. GDS removed many of the unnecessary signs to provide a cleaner, simpler look, with only those signs that were necessary to get patients and visitors to their desired location.
Regarding the parking garage, GDS developed a completely new Wayfinding System incorporating the use of colors as a mental cue. Each level of the parking garage was labeled with both a number and a primary color.