Social heart: Sheila and Eric Samson Pavilion by Foster + Partners

The new Sheila and Eric Samson Pavilion at the Health Education Campus of Case Western Reserve University is the core element of the masterplan developed by Foster + Partners for Cleveland Clinic. The design unites the formerly separate medical education programmes offered by the university and Cleveland Clinic Lerner College in a multidisciplinary, four-storey building.

Norman Foster's plan for the health building particularly emphasises the spatial (and intellectual) flexibility required for responding to new lines of scientific enquiry; key elements of the Sheila and Eric Samson Pavilion accordingly consist of informal meeting and discussion spaces for fostering interaction and knowledge sharing.  New virtual- and mixed-reality programmes complement the medical education and facilitate collaboration between the faculties.

The social heart of the Sheila and Eric Samson Pavilion consists of the central Delos M. Cosgrove Courtyard – a spacious, light-filled interior space made possible by a generous donation from Robert E. Rich Jr., immediate past chairman of Cleveland Clinic's Board of Directors, and his wife, Mindy.