NCH Healthcare System received approval from the Naples Design Review Board for its five-story heart institute that will replace the existing three-story Telford building, just south of the Downtown Baker Hospital building.  

In February, the design board voted to continue the discussion and requested multiple changes to the proposed design, along with bringing forward the proposed four-floor parking structure for review. Some of the suggestions from the board included more context on how the structure fits with existing structures on the property and proposed landscaping.  

Houston-based CannonDesign partnered with Fort Myers-based Studio+ architecture firm, which led the design for the project. 

Luke Johnson, vice president of CannonDesign, provided updates focused heavily on landscape and expanding the Garden of Hope and Courage to make it continuous around the whole site of the building.  

Proposals for each floor of the building remain the same from the prior board meeting. The first floor will be a training and education space, and the second floor will be a procedural space and connector for surgeons and patients to access the main hospital, along with a separate connector for the public. The third floor will be made up of exam rooms and be connected to the parking structure. Levels four and five will have a total of 27 patient rooms.  

One of the biggest changes proposed from the February meeting is pushing the parking garage an additional 20 feet east onto the property to create a 60-foot buffer of agriculture along Sixth Avenue North. Although the plan removes 15 parking spaces, it would allow the Garden of Hope and Courage to become a linear park that connects throughout the entire campus.  

“What we want to do is increase both the park setting that you experience as you walk through the site, but also look at integrating those components and natural components both vertically across the parking structure and through the impacted zones around the hospital expansion itself,” Johnson said.  

Throughout the park there will be a meandering sidewalk weaving through the landscape, allowing for more benches and public sculptural elements. Board member Mike Faucett appreciated the enhanced garden concept.“I liked the way you’ve connected the Garden of Hope to the community,” he said. “I think, currently, it’s somewhat an isolated park and now you’ve connected it, so hats off [to] that. That is going to be a big improvement.” 

Johnson said the parking garage is strategically placed on the western side of the project, toward residential homes to create a transitional height feel to the entire project as it is slightly shorter than the heart institute.  

“If the hospital were all the way on [the west end], the scale jumps up immediately, but rather use the parking structure as a transitional kind of scaled element,” Johnson said. 

Surrounding landscape is proposed for half of the garage, with the other half being surrounded by shear wall. Design Review Board Chair Steven Hruby proposed landscape surrounding the entire garage and a more inviting entrance to the new hospital building.  

“It kind of looks like driving up to Newark Airport,” Hruby said. “It has an air terminal feel about it. It doesn’t have a welcoming feel. It looks like I want to drive through here, drop off and run. And I don’t know how you can maybe make this a little more pedestrian friendly, a little more intimate.” 

Board member David Driapsa expressed disapproval of the project’s location. 

“When we look at Sixth Street, that’s one of the loveliest neighborhoods in Naples,” he said. “It’s residential on the west, on the east is institutional. And this building intrudes further to the west, further into the zone of the residential, rather than putting it to the east where it’s already heavily institutionalized. I think that’s wrong. I think my duty as a board member is to speak out for this community for the preservation of our established neighborhoods.” 

There were a handful of residents at the meeting who shared concerns about the location of the project, such as Kathleen Coleman who lives just south of NCH. She thinks the building is way too large for the area. “I understand that the reflective glass will prevent the birds from flying into the glass, but it doesn’t prevent the rest of us from seeing this enormous structure that really is different and overwhelms the community as it exists now,” Coleman said. “I would just ask [you] to consider having a lower profile of the exterior of the project.”  

Laura Reynolds lives two blocks from NCH and is pleased with the efforts the design team took to resolve her concerns. She is now in favor of the project and asked for a traffic impact study. 

“The hospital has worked hard to ameliorate the concerns of the surrounding community,” Reynolds said. “They’re living up to the mission that NCH is truly Naples Community Hospital.”  

The design review board approved the proposal by a 4-1 vote, with Driapsa dissenting. There are still some hurdles for NCH to clear before beginning construction. The next step is a City Council vote to rezone the property to public service and grant NCH conditional-use approval. The site plan must be viewed by all necessary city departments before final approval by City Council.