PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) -- Penn Medicine's Pavilion is getting closer to welcoming patients on the West Philadelphia campus and what's inside will be extraordinary.
The 17-story, billion-dollar pavilion will add more than 500 private rooms to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania , according to CEO Dr. Regina Cunningham.
"We have been planning this for, really, seven years or so, and its construction will be finalized and we'll be ready to move patients into that facility in late October of this year," Cunningham said.
The main atrium will feature a huge piece of art by Maya Lin, the artist and designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Derek Tasch, the health system architect says art is essential to the facility's design
"It's in the main public space that actually bridges between our two public floors. The work itself, is sort of a narrow, steel, sort of a tree structure. It is then covered over with thousands of glass spheres of varying sizes," Tasch said.
He says the reflected light is meant to instill a sense of calm, peace and healing to the patients and their families. The piece has a working title of "DNA Tree of Life."