The project: The new Cherry Hospital is a 410,000-sf, three-story behavioral healthcare facility serving patients across eastern North Carolina. Purpose-built to meet the specialized needs of individuals requiring mental health treatment, the hospital provides 312 beds for long-term, acute, adolescent, geriatric, and medical patients.

The goal: The project aimed to deliver a comprehensive, state-supported mental health facility that ensures long-term viability, therapeutic functionality, and operational efficiency. A major priority was selecting a structural system that could support a wide range of programmatic needs while remaining cost-effective and constructible on a large scale.

The design: In keeping with best practices for large-scale healthcare design, senior structural engineers were engaged early in the planning phase. Their experience guided a comparative evaluation of multiple structural systems, balancing factors such as long-term performance, constructibility, and cost.

The final design features:

• Patient care units constructed with durable concrete masonry walls and precast hollow-core floor planks
• A central circulation spine framed in structural steel
• Treatment malls that include rooftop courtyard gardens for therapeutic use
• A wide range of support spaces including classrooms, administrative offices, a gymnasium, dining and kitchen areas, medical treatment rooms, laboratory space, a central utility plant, and a separate landscape building

The outcome: The new Cherry Hospital delivers a thoughtfully designed, high-capacity mental health facility that supports diverse patient populations and care modalities. The building’s robust structural system and programmatic layout reflect an integrated approach to healing environments, operational functionality, and long-term resilience.