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University of Kentucky Medical Center

Rippe Associates was hired to provide master planning and design services for the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington. The facilities team was in the process of building the Albert B. Chalder Hospital in 2008 to modernize the hospital due to the rapidly changing nature of healthcare delivery. The 1,000,000 SF, ten-story hospital started as the first phase to move the emergency department, operating rooms, and two six-floor towers of patient beds.

Over time, as the floors were being built, we completed the design of the Courtyard Café that was a combination of specialty coffee service and bistro. The full department plans were completed to a design development level and side-lined until future phases of patients moved to the shelled floors. We kept in contact with the facilities planning team over time, and in 2014 began finishing the documents that were started in 2007.

The new foodservice department consists of a kitchen on the lower level designed to serve 600-700 beds and a retail café on the upper lobby pedestrian level to serve 1800-2200 weekday lunch transactions. The kitchen is designed with a combination room service and ambassador service model. The retail design will be modernized from its 2007 design with additional display cooking and merchandising opportunities.