By Katie Weeks
Photography by Jim Roof

Despite its scope as a $344-million master plan, expansion, and renovation of two campuses totaling more than 1 million sq. ft., the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite and Egleston project was, literally and figuratively, a walk in the park.

The two campuses previously had operated as competing hospitals, but under a merger became Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, requiring a new brand across both entities. Not only did the facilities need updated interiors, but both also desired new main lobbies, public waiting areas, administration areas, chapels, and gift shops. In addition, the Egleston campus needed a new cafeteria, a cardiac ICU, a central lab and sterile processing area, several catheterization laboratory rooms, more OR and pre-op/post-op spaces, an outpatient cancer and infusion center, and a pediatric ICU unit. Across town, the Scottish Rite site added on a new emergency department, expanded imaging spaces including three MRI spaces, an interventional radiology room, two CT areas, and extra radiation rooms, as well as additional ORs, among other spaces.

Although the facilities focus on children's healthcare, a heavy emphasis on primary colors or childish themes was out of the question. Believing the interiors on both campuses would reflect the hospital's standard of care, the client sought a timeless scheme marrying strong corporate branding with patient-focused care, enhanced wayfinding, and positive distractions.

Inspiration came from the unexpected: a previously unused garden on the Egleston campus. Thus, in the new scheme for both campuses, the outdoors takes center stage. The overriding theme is "Discovery Garden: The Healing Power of Mother Nature." Growing from this, the design team set out to create a kit-of-parts Children's Hospital that could adapt to both campuses.

Overall, soft organic forms are placed alongside bold colors in a child-friendly—yet not childish—mix the Interiors Awards judges note, "kids would dig." Other organic elements include stone terrazzo floors, nature-embedded acrylics, and interactive, virtual water walls. Leaf pattern ceilings align the public lobbies, while elevators simulate the inside of a tree trunk with undulating wood walls abstractly referencing tree bark, and large glass panels in the Egleston cafeteria are etched with enlarged leaves of grass.

Wayfinding is addressed through strategic layouts and floor patterns, floor and ceiling nodes at key destination points, and decorative lighting. Educational discovery walls throughout each facility incorporate large-scale graphics corresponding to a floor's color palette, and provide a unique twist on the traditional donor wall, while multimedia elements engage patients.

Since completing the Egleston component in 2007 and heading toward the completion of the Scottish Rite site scheduled for March 2008, the response from visitors has been positive. "I think the design is very timeless because it's not childish. Kids are much smarter than I think we give them credit for," says Betsy Beaman, AIA, principal at Stanley Beaman & Sears, who worked on the project in conjunction with HKS. It seems the hospital administrators agree: Children's Hospital is planning on using the same design themes and kit of parts on a future third facility in the Atlanta area.  

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