Size

Site: 35 Acres
Built: 99,000 sq. ft. / 9,200 sq. m.
Beds: 155

Year

2016

Status

Completed

Client

Liberian Ministry of Health

Partners

Fall Creek Engineering, Mazzetti Engineering, NOUS Engineering

Christian Benimana

Christian Benimana, RA

Senior Principal & Managing Director — Kigali

Christian Benimana joined MASS Design Group as a Global Health Corps Design Fellow in 2010. Today, Christian works as one of the firm's Senior Principals and Managing Directors, and is Director of the African Design Centre, a field-based apprenticeship that is set to empower leaders who will design a more equitable, just, and sustainable world. At MASS, he has been involved with design/build projects, development initiatives, operational and administration leadership. Christian has been listed among 10 architects and designers that are championing Afrofuturism and 2017 Quartz Africa Innovators. He has authored articles and book chapters including Re-Thinking the Future of African Cities in The African Perspective Magazine and Creating Design Leaders: The African Design Centre in Public Interest Design Education Guidebook.

Christian has taught at the Architecture School of the former Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) and his goal is to develop the next generation of African designers with socially-focused design principles. Before joining MASS, he worked with LongiLat Architecture and Research in Shanghai assisting with the Porsche Center in Shanghai and the Netherlands Pavilion in the 2010 International Expo. Christian holds a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the School of Architecture and Urban Planning (CAUP) of Tongji University in Shanghai, China (2008), and has served as the Secretary General of the East Africa Institute of Architects.

John Maher

John Maher

Design Director — Chicago, IL

John joined MASS in early 2014 and spent two and a half years working in MASS' Kigali office before moving back to Boston, and is now based in Chicago. John has led design teams on two hospital projects currently under construction in Rwanda, Munini and Nyarugenge District Hospitals, and most recently New Redemption Hospital in Caldwell, Liberia. He is currently working on the design of a behavioral health furniture line and construction oversight for New Redemption Hospital. He's worked on projects in East Africa, West Africa, South Asia, and North America. Prior to joining MASS, John was awarded two Public Service Center Fellowships from MIT for water, sanitation, and hygiene projects in Tamale, Ghana. As a Visiting Professor at Washington University in St. Louis in the spring of 2020 John led a studio focusing on the social determinants of health and design interventions in North St. Louis. He is currently pursuing an MBA at University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business as a Neubauer Civic Scholar. John received his Master of Architecture from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from Washington University in St. Louis.

Project Team

Christian Benimana, Adam Saltzman, Alan Ricks, Brad Pickard, John Maher, David Saladik, Lorenzo Nshizirungu, Kelly Doran

Aerial rendering of the Redemption Pediatric Hospital

The Government of Liberia has initiated the five year Rebuilding Basic Health Services (RBHS), which includes increasing access to basic health services and strengthening the decentralized management of the current health system.

Rendering of Redemption Hospital, View of interior corridor and patient interaction

Liberia’s long civil war left the health care service delivery system fragmented and damaged, and heavily dependent on international donors and NGOs. In only a few short years, Liberia has taken bold steps to transition from an emergency relief model of health service delivery to a functioning, decentralized health system.

Rendering of Redemption Hospital, View of courtyard circulation of the hospital
Rendering of Redemption Hospital, Interior Ramp with views to patient interaction
Rendering of Redemption Hospital, View of hospital corridor and central atrium

MASS is working with the Liberia Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MOHSW), RBHS, and a local subsidiary of John Snow International to design and construct a three story, 145- bed pediatric facility with nurses’ stations, bathrooms/showers, offices, and a play area.