CJMW Architecture guided The Resurgent through every stage of design, shaping both the core and shell of the five-story building and the tenant spaces within into a mixed-use landmark for healthcare, entrepreneurship, and community development on one of east Greensboro’s most significant streets.
Celebrating The Resurgent’s Ribbon Cutting: A Milestone for East Greensboro
East Greensboro has a new landmark. On a bright afternoon on East Market Street, community leaders, healthcare professionals, AEC professionals, business innovators, and neighbors gathered beneath a blue and silver balloon arch to mark a ribbon cutting that has been years in the making. The Resurgent, a five-story mixed-use building at the corner of East Market Street and Benbow Road, directly across from NC A&T State University, officially opened its doors in a celebration that felt less like a grand opening and more like a homecoming for a neighborhood long overdue for this kind of investment.
Community stakeholders, NC A&T Real Estate Foundation leadership, Cone Health representatives, and the CJMW Architecture team gathered outside the main entrance as remarks honored the building not only as a healthcare destination, but as a symbol of investment, resilience, and community pride for east Greensboro. Cone Health was recognized as a highlight of the day. As majority owner of the building and anchor healthcare tenant, Cone Health’s presence is central to The Resurgent’s mission to bring quality services back to east Greensboro. For CJMW Architecture, the ribbon cutting marked the completion of a deeply meaningful project spanning both the design of the building’s core and shell and the interior design of its spaces throughout.
For the CJMW team, the moment was an opportunity to reflect on what the work truly means. The Resurgent is not just the completion of a project. It is the beginning of the building’s life in the community.
A Building Designed for a Community’s Future
CJMW’s work on The Resurgent began with the building itself. The firm designed the five-story structure from the ground up, shaping the architecture, massing, and systems that would make it suitable for the mix of healthcare, innovation, and community uses it was always intended to house. CJMW contributed architecture, interior design, lighting fixture selection, and finish specifications across the building’s spaces.
The Resurgent’s vision is comprehensive. The building is home to Cone Health’s healthcare facilities, which anchor the lower floors, and also houses the East Greensboro Entrepreneurial Hub, which includes NC A&T’s Center of Excellence for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEE&I) and the regional Small Business and Technology Development Center (SBTDC). The NC A&T Real Estate Foundation serves as building owner and community steward, with its own offices and event spaces among the upper floors. Additional tenants and uses throughout the building further reinforce The Resurgent’s role as a hub for the east Greensboro community. Together, these occupants represent a holistic approach to community revitalization: accessible healthcare, minority business development, local job creation, and entrepreneurial growth, all under one roof on one of Greensboro’s most historically significant streets.
Designing the Cone Health Spaces: Healthcare for East Greensboro
With the building’s core and shell established and the additional floors supporting the building’s broader community mission, the Cone Health spaces on the first and second floors represent the heart of The Resurgent’s healthcare vision and the most clinically intensive work in CJMW’s scope. The result is a patient-centered environment built around accessibility, clinical efficiency, and community well-being, designed to deliver the standard of care that east Greensboro deserves.
First Floor: Urgent Care and Women’s Health
The first floor of The Resurgent houses two distinct Cone Health clinics totaling approximately 9,000 square feet: a Cone Health Urgent Care facility and the Cone Health Center for Women’s Healthcare. Both clinics share a central lobby and a conference room accessible from both the main entrance and the women’s clinic, fostering connection while preserving clinical privacy.
Cone Health Urgent Care: A Hospitality-Inspired Approach to Patient Experience
Patient experience begins at the front door. The Urgent Care waiting area was intentionally designed to reduce stress and anxiety on arrival. Warm wood tones, a curved reception desk with clean white countertops, bold yellow lounge seating, and a built-in coffee and snack bar give the space a hospitality-forward feel rarely found in urgent care settings, one that reflects the growing body of evidence showing that calming, welcoming environments directly improve patient satisfaction and reduce perceived wait times.
Behind the public-facing spaces, the clinical layout supports high patient throughput with a central nurse’s station, five exam rooms, one exam/procedure room, X-ray capabilities, a lab with patient toilet pass-through, dedicated provider spaces, staff lounge, laundry, and clean/soiled storage. Every square foot was planned to support smooth clinical workflows for the Cone Health care team.
Cone Health Center for Women’s Healthcare: Designing for Dignity and Comfort
The Women’s Healthcare clinic was designed with a distinct visual identity that speaks directly to its patients. A dramatic arched entry in rich walnut-toned wood frames a deep sage green accent wall with delicate floral wallcovering, creating an immediate sense of warmth, privacy, and care.
The clinic includes a reception area, open lobby and waiting room, dedicated lactation room, behavioral health room, one nurse’s intake and exam room, three standard exam rooms, and one exam/procedure room. Support spaces are robust: two provider workrooms, a lab, staff lounge, clean and soiled laundry areas, and patient toilets with lab pass-through. The design prioritizes the full continuum of women’s health, from routine wellness to behavioral health support, within an environment that feels calm, affirming, and private.
Second Floor: Primary Care Built for the Community
The entire second floor of The Resurgent is dedicated to Cone Health Primary Care, a full-service practice serving the east Greensboro community. The floor was designed with two functional zones: publicly accessible patient spaces and a fully equipped back-of-house provider environment.
The patient-facing areas include a reception lobby and waiting room, 11 exam rooms, one exam/procedure room, and a triage room. The reception area makes a strong design statement: a natural oak architectural frame with integrated artwork, dark acoustic ceiling baffles for warmth and sound control, and a sophisticated blue-and-wood color palette that reinforces the Cone Health brand while creating a distinctly welcoming atmosphere.
The back-of-house spaces are equally thoughtful. Seven private offices accommodate providers, a practice administrator, social work staff, and a THN office. Staff amenities include a lounge, changing room, and touchdown workspace. A training room and conference room support ongoing education and team collaboration, making the floor as functional for the care team as it is welcoming for patients.
Healthcare Interior Design Rooted in Community and Equity
Every material and finish in the Cone Health spaces was selected with intention. Warm wood aesthetics, bold accent colors, and biophilic design elements were chosen for both their visual impact and their proven contribution to patient well-being. Research in evidence-based healthcare design consistently links thoughtfully designed clinical environments to reduced patient anxiety, higher satisfaction scores, and better health outcomes.
Beyond Healthcare: Entrepreneurship, Community, and the Spaces That Support Them
The Resurgent is more than a healthcare building. The floors beyond the Cone Health clinics house a range of spaces designed to support the entrepreneurs, administrators, and community organizations that make the building’s broader mission possible.
The East Greensboro Entrepreneurial Hub brings together NC A&T’s Center of Excellence for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the regional Small Business and Technology Development Center, creating a connected environment for business growth and minority entrepreneurship in a community that has long needed this kind of institutional investment.
The NC A&T Real Estate Foundation occupies its own dedicated space in the building, designed to serve both its day administrative functions and its role as a convener of community partners and stakeholders. The layout includes private staff offices, open collaborative workspaces, and generous hospitality areas purpose-built for hosting events, receptions, and gatherings. Finishes were selected to convey institutional confidence while remaining warm and welcoming to the visitors and community members the foundation regularly hosts.
A Neighborhood Reclaimed Through Intentional Design
The project carries deep community significance. East Market Street was historically the center of Greensboro’s African American commerce and culture, a neighborhood that suffered significant displacement during mid-century urban renewal. The Resurgent is part of a revitalization effort to restore economic vitality and bring essential services back to east Greensboro, and the spaces CJMW designed are central to that mission.
For CJMW Architecture, The Resurgent represents what design can do when it is rooted in community: not just a building, but a statement of what east Greensboro has always deserved and is finally receiving.
The CJMW Project Team
CJMW Architecture was engaged in two phases for The Resurgent: first to design the building’s core and shell, and later to provide complete interior design services for the Cone Health floors. The two scopes brought together overlapping teams of architects, interior designers, and project managers committed to delivering a building that serves its community for generations.
Cone Health Interior Design Team
Kathleen D. Warner, RID, NCIDQ, LEED AP, IIDA, President
Megan Hess, WELL AP, Assoc. IIDA, Interior Designer
Keagan W. Pope, AIA, LEED AP Project Manager
Marissa Arnette
Margaret Cochran
Cayla Lowrey
Zoë Patrick
Building Core and Shell Team
Kellie Overberg, AIA, NCARB, Project Architect
Joey Cargill, AIA, Architect
Jeffrey W. Sowers, AIA
Craig Nightingale
Travis Temples, Assoc. AIA
Cayla Lowrey
Marissa Arnette
Megan Hess
Zoë Patrick
Cone Health selected the furnishings and artwork that complete these beautifully designed spaces. CJMW also acknowledges the key project partners: Samet Construction (General Contractor); Barrett, Woodyard & Associates (MEP Engineering); NV5 (Structural Engineering); and JC Waller (Civil Engineering).
