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Virginia Tech

Architecture and Rehabilitation: How Architecture can be Rehabilitative for its Patients, for its City

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

This building serves as a rehabilitative center for patients in recovery from mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI). It is located on the Columbia Medical School and New York Presbyterian Hospital campus in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. The building is designed with three goals in mind: to provide a safe and healing environment tailored specifically to the needs of the patients; to provide a positive working environment for the doctors, nurses, and staff who care for the patients; to provide a space for the public to find healing of their own. Patient rooms are broken up into three stages - dark, intermediate, and light - that encourage a slow and gentle reintroduction into the world. Staff areas are designed to allow in natural light, easy access to the outside, and privacy away from patients that allow the caregivers a space to recover and find moments of revitalization. The roof, open to the public, lifts upward toward the Hudson River and allows an unobstructed view of the Hudson River Greenway, the Hudson River, and Fort Lee, New Jersey. In a neighborhood of overworked doctors and staff, family members visiting sick loved ones, and residents of an urban environment this roof overlook provides a rehabilitating view of a rare natural environment. The following words, sketches, and drawings attempt to convey the process, structure, and poetry of the building.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Architecture
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Architecture
Department dc:contributor.department
Architecture
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2016

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Conner-Diven, Erin
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Holt, Jaan
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Piedmont-Palladino, Susan C.
  • Emmons, Paul F.

Subjects

dc:subject × 4

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
vt_gsexam:6590
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/73781

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Conner-Diven, Erin. Architecture and Rehabilitation: How Architecture can be Rehabilitative for its Patients, for its City. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/73781