Largest Pediatric Expansion Project in U.S. History
As Columbus, Ohio celebrates its bicentennial, Nationwide Children’s Hospital celebrates the biggest achievement in its 120-year history, changing both the Columbus skyline and the future of pediatric care.
Nationwide Children’s, alongside community leaders and partners, celebrated the completion of its seven-year campus expansion, the largest pediatric expansion project in U.S. history. Once renovations have been made to the existing hospital, Nationwide Children’s will house 460 patient beds on its main campus in addition to the 92 off-site newborn special and intensive care beds the hospital leases from local maternity wards.
The expansion adds 2.1-million-square-feet to Nationwide Children’s downtown campus. The project will continue to create additional jobs through 2014, bringing the total job creation to 2,400 and a community economic impact of $1.3 billion.
The six key areas of growth of the campus expansion include a 12-story, 750,000-square-foot new main hospital; a six-acre front lawn and green space that will complement the existing Livingston Park; a LEED-Silver certified central energy plant; expanded parking with the Livingston Avenue garage (more than 1,500 parking spaces) and the two-story underground parking garage (more than 400 spaces) located beneath the front lawn and connected via tunnel to the new tower. It also includes a clinical research building that houses the Surgery Center, the Center for Digestive Disorders, GI procedures and clinical psychology as well as two floors dedicated to research and an expanded West campus that includes a research facility known as Research Building III (RBIII).
The opening of Research Building III, slated for mid-summer 2012, will significantly expand Nationwide Children’s capacity for leading-edge child health research. When all floors are complete, the new research facility will add 225,000-square-feet to the current 300,000-square-feet in the existing Wexner Institute for Pediatric Research and Research Building II.
Linking to Nature
Upon entering the new main hospital, patients will encounter a design that is uplifting and optimistic. A nature theme is carried throughout with natural wood textures and imagery of animals, birds and butterflies. The hospital’s interior design team found that in times of stress and anxiety, images of birds, butterflies and notions of flight created feelings of calm, hope and optimism.
The new main hospital was designed so that natural light enters from all four sides of the building, and every patient room has large windows allowing natural daylight into the room that will help patients recover by reducing anxiety and associated complications.
Patient rooms and corridors are equipped with sound-absorbing materials to reduce ambient noise. Every patient room in the hospital will be private, reducing the chance of infection and potential errors, enhancing sleep and supporting family inclusion. Also, patients and their families will have control of lighting and thermal comfort systems in rooms.
The standardization in rooms and unit layout will reduce variability in configurations, increase safety through standardization of clinical support amenities as well as patient movement in the room, ease orientation to units, reduce frustration and stress and enhance facility flexibility for future utilization.
Nationwide Children’s funded the expansion through a combination of operations, bonds and philanthropy. Early fundraising success was also instrumental to funding the project with the completion of the $300-million “Change their Tomorrow” campaign (with an original goal of $250 million). Throughout the multi-year effort Nationwide Children’s has maintained a both a Aa2 Moody’s bond rating and AA bond rating from Fitch, the highest ratings awarded to any freestanding children’s hospital.
Editor’s Note: Read more about this project in the July/August issue of MCD.
Project Team:
Turner/Smoot Construction: new hospital and RBIII construction manager
FKP: new hospital architect
HAWA: MEP new hospital and RBIII engineer
Jezerinac Geers & Associates: new hospital structural engineer
Ralph Appelbaum Associates: new hospital interior and exhibit designer
NBBJ: RBIII architect
Shelley Metz Baumann Hawk: RBIII structural engineer
Formation: campus signage designer
Big Red Rooster: interior designer
Gilbane: construction manager – central energy plant and utility tunnels
MSI-KKG: campus-wide landscape architect
EMH&T, Inc.: civil engineer for new hospital and RBIII
