Following the addition of a state-of-the-art Women's
Center and an expanded Emergency Department, Saint Joseph Mercy Health
System asked Corbin to develop an interior wayfinding and signage program
for its flagship Ann Arbor hospital. The project encompassed 1.7 million
square feet of space, including the main hospital with its two six-story
patient towers and expanded Emergency Department, the Women's
Center, a three-story imaging and family birth center and a six-story
medical office building.
The previous wayfinding system was inconsistent
in its design and upkeep. It relied heavily on the use of overhead
signs through the long corridors,
and it had no comprehensive system of directory listings or maps. On
Corbin's recommendation, the hospital renamed the elevators
based on their primary location within each building and added a color
to each elevator bank based on the zoned wayfinding already in use
on exterior signage.
Corbin also developed a visually harmonious system
of signs that includes floor and building identification on the directional
signage, corridor
maps in the connecting hallways, directory listings at all elevators,
and main directories and maps at primary public entrances. All of
the signage components were designed with paper inserts for easy in-house
updating.