Outer Beauty

Sheila Kim -- Interior Design, 2/1/2002 12:00:00 AM

University Hospitals of Cleveland has a main campus of mostly beige brick and limestone, but that wasn't the look administrators wanted for a satellite to provide cancer treatment, internal medicine, and women's health services. The Chagrin Highlands Medical Center, named for nearby suburb Chagrin Falls and designed by Van Dijk Westlake Reed Leskosky, is a 100,000-square-foot "statement" along Interstate 271, says firm principal Ronald Reed: "The building sort of dances." He's referring to the facade's stainless-steel shingles, which shimmer and change in hue depending on sunlight and viewing angle. To enhance this eye-grabbing quality, Reed's firm used large expanses of glass; in some spots, a white layer inserted in the glazing creates a glow effect in the evening. The glass and metal are rounded out with brick. Matte buff-colored ones loosely recall the main hospital campus; bottle-green glazed ones at the building's base tie it to the grassy hill below.