Tucked within the tight urban fabric, the Vertical Expansion provides 198 new (409 full compliment) inpatient beds on six floors over the existing six-story East Wing. Service lines for the adult floors, 8 through 10, include Cardiology, Neurology and Oncology while the interstitial floor separating the two structures allows for the transition from a concrete structure to a steel structure as well as providing mechanical support and storage.

The upper two floors, 11 and 12, are designated as the Golisano Children’s Hospital of Central New York; designed to create an experience that unfolds and captures the visitor’s imagination in diverse ways, creating a sense of wonder and delight, the notion of children as explorers on a journey to health.

A hospital within a hospital raised in the sky, the vision was to create a separate identity and entrance, like a clubhouse where you have to know the password to enter and adults have to be invited. Children ride the glass-enclosed express elevators to the signature “Tree House,” an out-of-this-world iconic entrance. A different perspective, literally, with respect to the ground floor and, figuratively in that you are in a special place designed for children.