Lab Tested Hiding In Plain Sight: Adaptive Re-use Of Hospitals As Affordable And Workforce Housing Summer Must-have [WVlRMAv8]

The premise of this session is that hospital buildings are intrinsically residential and present excellent opportunities for conversion to other uses, especially housing. The presentation will include excellent examples of adaptive re-use conversion, featuring Mercy State Street Hospital in Portland, Maine.

Mercy was a 150-bed 1940’s historic hospital, which is now fully occupied with affordable housing and workforce housing, together with amenities (fitness center, retail, community penthouse dining and kitchen, and self-storage units in the basement). Additionally, senior and family affordable housing have been developed in new structures on the former parking lots on the site.

The United States is home to many older hospitals and today we have dozens which have recently closed. Like many other hospitals of its vintage, Eastern Niagara Hospital in Lockport, New York closed in July 2023 when a newer and smaller, more eficient 10-bed hospital opened in the community. Eastern Niagara Hospital’s three interconnected wings held 103 beds in 203,000 square feet and were built in 1936, 1961 and 1980. The facility was oversized for the current community need, and didn’t accommodate the evolving patient care model. However, the hospital building has significant infrastructure as well as the narrow floor plates with extensive windows that lend themselves to housing and other people-centric uses. The previous hospital owner elected to put the hospital up for sale shortly after it closed. Following two failed attempts at sale, Eastern Niagara Hospital was sold at auction in November 2024.

This session will explore the adaptive re-use of Eastern Niagara Hospital for community serving functions such as affordable housing, senior living, workforce housing, as well as some synergistic outpatient medical functions (PACE, urgent care), and campus and neighborhood-supporting retail among other possible programs.

Using site plans and floor plans to illustrate how a hospital conversion works, we will demonstrate a new concept for the development of affordable housing nationally.

Speakers

• Shannon Huffer, Vice President, Colliers
• Sarah Meeker Jensen, Principal Architect, AvardDaniels
• Jolie Milstein, CEO & President, NYSAFAH