Cherry Hospital, NC Department of Health and Human Services

The Cherry Hospital is a new facility for the care of patients requiring mental health treatment in the eastern portion of North Carolina.  The new hospital will replace an existing campus of buildings that had become obsolete and could not be adapted to meet current codes and the needs of North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

The new facility will provide 312 beds for Long Term, Acute, Adolescent, Geriatric and Medical patients.  The new three-story building will bring all of the hospital functions under one roof, replacing the previous campus of unconnected buildings.  Mental health services will be provided through the “treatment mall” approach for patient care.  The primary treatment mall is organized along a 760-foot long “Main Street” that stitches the various programmatic components together with outdoor courtyards so the hospital functions much like the small towns found in eastern North Carolina. Building wings for diagnostics, treatment, and administration are to one side of the “Main Street” while patient residences and recreational programs are connected to the other side.
 
The “Main Street” is located on the middle of the three floors minimizing the vertical travel for patients who relocate from their residential unit to the treatment mall during the day for training and therapy.  Convenient access to secure outdoor courtyards provides patients with views to the landscape beyond while maintaining patient privacy.  The treatment mall’s approach provides for a change in environment that has been shown to be helpful for patient rehabilitation as they prepare, in most cases, to return to their communities after treatment.  The treatment mall provides patients with access to classrooms, dining and recreation facilities, as well as a library, barber/beauty shop, music room and a meditation room.  The facility also includes a clinic, pharmacy, administration offices, engineering, and other requirements for a free-standing, state-of-the-art psychiatric hospital.
 
The 170-acre building site is located approximately one mile from the existing campus and in a field currently used for agricultural research.  The design of the hospital has been developed to reflect the scale and pattern of the farm structures in the nearby community.