Emory Musculoskeletal Institute

  • Prize
    Winner in Architectural Design - Healthcare and Wellness Facilities
  • Design Company
    HKS Architects
  • Lead Designer
    HKS Architects
  • Architecture Firm
    HKS Architects
  • Photo Credit
    Jonathan Hillyer Photography
  • Project Location
    Brookhaven, GA
  • Project Date
    October 2021

Before a patient even walks through the door, they are on a design-focused journey exploring the beauty of the human body’s bones and muscles. From the outside, the facade invokes a feeling of fluidity and motion with very few hard angles. The stunning research center on the sixth floor however, purposefully juts out of the otherwise curvilinear facade, representing looking toward the future in both research breakthroughs and patient outcomes.

Inside the building, nearly all design elements are inspired by features of the human anatomy, including patterns on the floor and ceilings that resemble muscle and tendon movement, glass patterned to look like nerves, elevator interiors that display artistic versions of bone cross-sections, and wood components designed with the hard striation of bone in mind.

Targeting LEED Gold certification, sustainable solutions were implemented that range from sensor lighting, automatic tinting glass, and reduction of light pollution in the neighboring areas to innovative stormwater management, indoor monitors that trigger increased fresh air flow in populated areas and an app to make high-touch areas more hygienic or avoidable.