FKP Architects Designs First Accredited Pediatric Hospital for Southwest Florida

HOUSTON, Texas – Today’s children’s hospitals aren’t just a place to heal, they also are places of inspiration and comfort to the children who are treated, the families who are served and the health professionals who spend long hours providing care. When the new Golisano Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida opens in Fort Myers in April 2017, the building will consolidate into one location the medical and ancillary specialty services required to treat critically ill or injured children in a five county region, in a space that reflects the natural environment of Southwest Florida.

The $250-million children’s hospital will be located at HealthPark Florida, a 400-acre medical campus that houses facilities and services across the entire continuum of healthcare. The centerpiece of the campus is HealthPark Medical Center, an acute care hospital that is the home of the current Golisano Children’s Hospital. GCHSWF and HealthPark Medical Center are part of Lee Memorial Health System.

At eight stories and almost 300,000 square feet, GCHSWF is intended to become the hallmark for pediatric care for the region, covering the five counties that make up Southwest Florida. The design for the whole facility revolves around family-centered care. The Fort Myers office of Florida architecture firm Harvard Jolly Architecture is the architect for GCHSWF and has partnered with the pediatric design architectural consultant, FKP Architects of Houston, Texas.

FKP began working directly with Lee Memorial Health System in September 2012 to create the design plan for GCHSWF.  FKP met with individuals affected by the design such as hospital administrators, doctors, patients and their families to understand all of their needs and to identify the main goals of the design.  Through this process three main goals were identified:

1. Establish GCHSWF as the region’s leading pediatric healthcare facility.
2. Empower GCHSWF patients and their families and caregivers with inspiration, hope and healing.
3. Provide a welcoming environment integrated with the Gulf Coast environment, adaptive to technology and flexible for evolving healthcare delivery.

To meet these goals, FKP led conceptual planning and building design. Part of the planning involved creating a building that reflected the area in which it is located. Throughout this process, FKP relied on HJA’s local Fort Myers presence and experience to ensure integration of local culture and operating environment, as well as HJA’s knowledge of and relationships with local agencies. The resulting design is an efficient 8-story block with a clean façade and extensive glass. The east and west elevations curve gently outward, with additional curved architectural accents throughout the facility, to evoke the waves of the nearby Gulf of Mexico. The interiors will be warm, using colors and materials reflective of the surrounding sun, surf and sand.

Another crucial part of the planning involved the input of individuals who will use the facility. Early in the planning process, the design team gathered extensive user input to drive decisions that would enhance the total user experience and increase operation efficiencies. For example, during schematic design all 64 NICU rooms were repositioned to the base of the building on a single floor. The change will reduce travel distances for staff and consolidate support functions, thereby reducing the building area and creating more amenity space for families. On the exterior, the emergency room drop-off area is on a separate level from ambulance access to improve overall vehicular flow. Foremost in the planning is the fact that this facility is for children so a large, secure outdoor play area will also be included.

GCHSWF will have a total of 160 beds comprised of 64 beds in private NICU rooms, 24 private pediatric intensive care unit beds, 12 beds in private hematology/oncology rooms and 60 medical/surgical beds. It will also include a pediatric emergency room with diagnostic services and 20 treatment beds, a hematology-oncology clinic, a dedicated pediatric pharmacy, pediatric surgical post-anesthesia care unit and pediatric respiratory therapy. In addition to these clinical uses, the GSCHSF will also include business support functions, building support functions and patient/family support functions.

Now that the initial planning and design process is complete, HJA is preparing construction documents so that construction can begin. Construction is expected to get underway in April 2014 with the anticipated completion in spring 2017. A philanthropic campaign is expected to raise private donations of more than $100 million of the $250 million needed for the project cost. The remainder is to be financed by Lee Memorial Health System. Hospital officials are confident of donor funding given the need for the facility in the community and has already raised $80 million toward the goal.