As climate hazards intensify across coastal regions, healthcare facilities face mounting pressure to remain fully operational through prolonged power outages, extreme heat, hurricanes, storm surge, and shifting groundwater conditions. In response to these growing risks, the first hospital in Sunrise, Florida, stands as a pioneering model of resilience driven, sustainability centered healthcare design for South Florida and beyond. This session offers an inside look at the hospital’s comprehensive resiliency strategy, presented through the integrated perspectives of an architect, civil engineer, landscape architect, and the owner (Baptist Health South Florida). From project inception, our team collaborated closely to ensure the facility could operate safely and continuously in a climate threatened environment. Targeting LEED v4 BD+C Gold and WELL v2 Platinum certifications, the hospital demonstrates how sustainability, wellness, and high-performance operations can be seamlessly embedded into a complex healthcare campus. Guided by a “do no harm” philosophy, our team addressed climate and site-specific risks by prioritizing patient safety, staff wellbeing, operational continuity, and reduced environmental and community impacts. We will share strategies including elevating critical infrastructure, designing a resilient central utility plant, leveraging site features for flood protection, preserving emergency access, reducing heat exposure, and creating one of the nation’s first all-electric inpatient hospitals with an EUI below 100. Beyond the technical solutions, the session highlights the human dimension of resilience: how design choices support clinicians during crisis, how patients experience safety amid uncertainty, and how stakeholder workshops informed critical decisions. Attendees will gain a holistic understanding of how a sustainability-aligned, resilience-first healthcare model can minimize environmental impact while maximizing functionality. This integrated approach offers a replicable path forward for healthcare institutions in climate vulnerable regions across the globe.
