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UPMC Mercy Pavilion Building Overview

UPMC has a rich history as an academic medical center and key partner of the University of Pittsburgh. 

At the new UPMC Mercy Pavilion, together we’re embracing design concepts that provide innovative spaces for patient care and professional collaboration. 

The 410,000-square-foot, 10-story UPMC Mercy Pavilion is home to:

A Holistic Approach 

Clinic-gym hybrid

The UPMC Mercy Pavilion will include an innovative clinic-gym hybrid that features:

  • Exam rooms.
  • Therapy stations.
  • A central gym.
  • Floor-to-ceiling windows, providing views of Mount Washington and the South Side Slopes.

Fully functional apartment, street simulation lab, and sensory garden

The apartment and street lab at the UPMC Mercy Pavilion will offer interactive learning to teach crucial life skills.

The healing garden on the rooftop terrace will have training ramps and stairs.

In the pavilion, patients will find a safe place to learn how to manage everyday outdoor obstacles like:

  • Ramps.
  • Stairs.
  • Diverse surfaces.

Collaborative staircase for doctors and researchers

Giving new meaning to bench-to-bedside care, the pavilion features a staircase where doctors and researchers can “meet in the middle” to:

  • Discuss innovative treatments.
  • Act on real-time feedback to provide care.

For our staff who can't use the stairs, a glass elevator will offer the same experience.

Accessible Parking at the UPMC Mercy Pavilion

A six-story parking garage will have 1,100 parking spaces for patients and staff.

A walking bridge will connect the new pavilion to the third floor of UPMC Mercy.

Patient-Centered Design

HOK — a global design, architecture, engineering, and planning firm — designed the pavilion with input from Chris Downey, AIA. Mr. Downey is one of the world’s few blind architects.

The floor plans and overall design:

  • Help people of all abilities to navigate the building.
  • Streamline patient care.
  • Create a welcoming, engaging, and warm setting for patients, visitors, and staff.

Central pods on surgical floors will make it easier for patients to go from an exam to:

  • Get test results.
  • Pick up prescriptions at the in-house pharmacy.
  • Go for rehab or other treatments.

Exam rooms have technology that offers interactive and real-time patient education.

The building's lighting provides contrast and brightness. Other materials and textures aid people with canes and sound as wayfinding tools.

Art as Therapy and Inspiration

Art can inspire, engage, and transform its viewers. And art plays a powerful and versatile role in the UPMC Mercy Pavilion.

UPMC will create a new standard for how we include art in the building, focusing on the patient experience.

Unique and commissioned artworks will bring to life various senses — seeing, hearing, touching, and smelling.

Meet the artists and view the art of the UPMC Mercy Pavilion.