Ridgewood, NJ — In 2014, The Valley Hospital of Ridgewood purchased a 150,000 s/f medical office building and decided the facility’s 24,000 s/f third floor would be home to Valley Heart Group, Heart Care for Women, Hospital Heart Risk and Screening Program, Comprehensive Heart Care Imaging Services and a Respiratory Care Practice. Collectively, these five specialties created the Michael Luckow Heart Center, named after a man who passed away from a heart attack at the young age of 44. The Luckow Family Foundation gifted the hospital with $5 million to establish the Center in Michael’s name. Robert Luckow, Michael’s uncle said “This Center, named in memory of Michael, will ensure that our community has access to state-of-the art cardiac services in one convenient location.”
The challenge was to create a space for these five unique but complimentary practices; to be contiguous, but separate. Valley Medical Group gave the interior design challenge to DesignPoint in Bethlehem, PA.
“The third floor space was previously occupied by a financial services group, and it was a complete renovation, tearing everything out leaving only the main structure,” said Les McCoy, president of DesignPoint. “We started with a fresh canvas and provided the complete interior architecture and design for the new Center.”
The design process commenced with meetings with the key practices of Cardiology and Imaging at their existing locations. McCoy and his team interviewed physicians, nurses, office staff and other health professionals. They analyzed how the practices worked, what they liked and disliked about their current facilities. McCoy guided the hospital leadership through an evaluation of the floor space of the new Center, testing space plans and workflow.
The center also includes a public meeting room with teaching kitchen to host classes on nutritious cooking and eating. Besides cooking classes a yoga studio was also included to teach mental control and well-being for creating a sense of inner peace, harmony, and clarity of mind.