Last week we celebrated the newly completed Foster Hospital for Small Animals at Tufts University’s Cummings Veterinary Medical Center. The celebrations took part over two days with a sculpture unveiling event followed by a donor reception held the next day.
Construction began in 2015 and just recently completed the fourth and final phase. The four phases of construction include approximately 18,000 GSF of renovation and 4,700 GSF of addition. The two-story addition has been open and serving the community since September of 2016. The final phase of specialty treatment spaces wrapped up the construction in early spring of 2017.
At the unveiling event, the sculpture – titled Animal Lover – was placed at the entry to the hospital, looking toward the cat waiting room. The bronze sculpture was unveiled by the sculptor Merrilyn Marsh, PAYETTE Principal George Marsh, Dean Debbie Kochever, Hospital Administrator Rich Harding and Medical Director Ginny Rentko. The unveiling of the sculpture was followed by a reception for faculty and staff.
Unveiling “Animal Lover” (from left to right) Sculptor Merrilyn Marsh, PAYETTE Principal George Marsh, Dean Debbie Kochever, Hospital Administrator Rich Harding, Medical Director Ginny Rentko
During the event, the new waiting room was alive with patients and their owners, but the clinical rooms remained undisturbed from the action with the area now separated from the waiting room.
New Waiting Room (Photo Credit: Tufts University)
Exam Room (Photo Credit: Tufts University)
The celebratory events concluded on Thursday night with a reception recognizing donors and major stakeholders for the meaningful contributions to the project. Clinicians and students lead tours of the new facilities and their renovated treatment areas.
During the tours, the successful concepts advocated for since the planning of the renovation and addition were praised by those who are now acclimating to them. With the renovation and addition complete, there is a new feeling of peace and lightness within the public areas of the hospital and its separation from the action-packed clinical areas is appreciated by both client and clinician.
We are honored to share PAYETTE has received two 2026 Green Good Design Awards from The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies—Land’s Sake Farm and The Ragon Institute of Mass General, MIT, and Harvard.
“Green GOOD DESIGN identifies and emphasizes the world’s most important examples of sustainable design and works to develop a public awareness program that informs the general public about which global companies are doing the best job in ecological and sustainable design for our world. Architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning projects, as well as product, packaging, and graphic design projects from over 30 nations were honored with the 2026 Green GOOD DESIGN Award.”
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