The new mills-peninsula Hospital in Burlingame, California, is a good example of evidence-based design, which has firmly taken root as the premiere influence on hospital architecture today. Anshen + Allen, now part of Stantec Architecture, used the approach to guide their design of this state-of-the art, 450,000-square-foot facility outside San Francisco. Based on scientific evidence that patients heal better when their physical and emotional comfort is maximized, Anshen + Allen's scheme puts the patient squarely at the center. For example, patients here are treated to 100-percent fresh air for ventilation; single-occupancy rooms for privacy; large windows to bring in light and provide vistas to the outdoors; exterior healing gardens and walking paths; and strategies to minimize noise and infection. 'Patients recover more quickly if they have views of nature. Single-room occupancy works better as there is less risk for medical error, for infection, and on the human side healing is more rapid,' remarks Kevin Day, senior architect from Anshen + Allen. 'Patient-centered care affected all our decisions.'