The Office of Academic Affairs awarded Katherine Ugorec ’22 (MPSH), who worked on the capstone project featured on this page, the Chairman’s Award for her overall performance at NYSID. At NYSID, capstone projects are long journeys that challenge students to brainstorm, conduct research, and synthesize all they have learned. The journey ends with a presentation to a jury of faculty and industry professionals. Our students work closely with faculty to create hypothetical designs that offer solutions to real-world problems.

Student: Katherine Ugorec
Project: Canarsie Micro Hospital
Program: Master of Professional Studies in Design of Healthcare Environments
Instructor: Kristin Miller

Katherine Ugorec’s Canarsie Micro Hospital, located in the landmarked ruin of a former smallpox hospital on Roosevelt Island, is designed to provide patients 12 years and older with access to orthopedic care within 72 hours of injury. The facility enables healthcare providers to triage, diagnose, treat, and perform surgery. Canarsie is a strong example of evidence-based design. Ugorec researched the demographics of Roosevelt Island and found it’s one of the few areas in Manhattan underserved by hospitals. She discovered that Roosevelt Island has a relatively young population, and a large number of families with children. “It’s an active place of parks and sports, but there are no good options in the neighborhood if you or your teen is injured and needs immediate care. I saw potential.” Perhaps one of the reasons Ugorec brings a business lens to her design work is that she worked on the financial and business management end of healthcare before coming to NYSID to first obtain her BFA in Interior Design, and later to get the MPSH. For Canarsie Micro Hospital, she came up with a space plan that made it efficient for injured patients to move through the facility from consultation to treatment. She used bold colors and strong visual impacts to make the wayfinding clear and demarcate the purpose of each zone. Through her research she learned that on the average, nurses walk 8 miles a day in their jobs, and many suffer from exhaustion, so she set up nursing stations in a way that was convenient for nurses. She named the hospital Canarsie because, “The whole island was purchased from the Canarsie tribes for almost nothing, so I wanted to pay homage to the island’s original inhabitants.” Ugorec currently works for NYU Langone’s Real Estate Planning and Development Team and is using a piece of her thesis in her work.