Healthcare Design - September 2024 - 12

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ACING PEDIATRIC DEPARTMENTS in aging buildings
with dated interiors, Springfield Clinic (Springfield, Ill.)
embarked on a project to build a new facility to house all
its pediatric services. From the onset, the project team,
including Lawrence Group (St. Louis), sought to create
a building that would help distract children and reduce
anxiety-starting from the moment they pull into the
parking lot. " You put a kid in the right environment with
kids they don't know, and all of a sudden, they all get on the same wavelength,
and they're ready to play, " says Tom Fitch, Springfield Clinic's vice
president of facilities, real estate, and construction. " I feel like this facility
developed a personality for positive play. "
Opened in October 2023, Springfield Clinic Pediatrics in Springfield,
houses multiple services over two floors including general pediatrics, dermatology,
lab, and radiology. A playful design and elements of distraction
are infused throughout the 41,500-square-foot center, beginning with the
arrival sequence and continuing through the exterior and interior spaces.
From the parking lot, approaching the building,
floor-to-ceiling windows into a two-story lobby
entrance provide transparency, offering glimpses
at the design, including colorful silhouettes on the
walls of children playing. Two 25-foot-tall kinetic
sculptures outside near the entrance have multiple
moving parts and provide a point of interest.
Inside, the facility's interior spaces feature pops
of primary and secondary colors in the furniture,
signage, and graphics. For example, the imaging
suite features a constellation theme on the walls,
inspired by the idea of laying outside and looking
up at the stars, and patients can select the color of
the changing LED lights.
One of the more unusual design elements came
during a brainstorming session with the project
team on what kids like to do and where they like
MORE ONLINE: For additional images
of the project, visit hcdmagazine.com/
projects/springfield-clinic-pediatrics.
ABOVE: Primary and
secondary colors reflective
of Springfield Clinic's
brand palette are used
to help with wayfinding.
BELOW: Immersive wall
art in an elevator car
provides a playful surprise
for young patients to help
calm anxiety.
to go, Fitch says. " We just kept going through
that thought process, and it was like, 'Well, kids
love to go down the slide ... Why couldn't we put a
slide in this building?' "
Julie Steffens, director of interiors at Lawrence
Group, which served as the design architect
and interior design firm on the project,
says to bring the play item into a clinical environment,
the project team considered different
styles and materials, such as metal or
plastic, before choosing a finished wood, which
adds warmth to the space. Located at the entrance
to the two-story lobby and adjacent to a
stairway, the slide is one of the first features that
visitors encounter.
And it's not just young patients enjoying it,
Fitch says. " I've seen numerous times where one
of our physicians is going down the slide with a
patient, " he says.
With the variety of positive distractions
housed at the clinic, the project team was strategic
about the placement of play areas, buffered
by quiet and restorative spaces such as a café
across the lobby entrance from the slide. Additionally,
waiting areas feature a variety of seating
types, such as soft benches and sectional couches,
and groupings to create comfortable spaces
for families to sit together. " We were able to create
communities, areas where we could separate
more quiet or restorative areas from some of
the spaces that are more active, " Steffens says.
-Robert McCune, senior editor
SEP TEMBER 202 4
HCDMAGAZINE.COM
LAWRENCE GROUP
http://www.hcdmagazine.com/projects/springfield-clinic-pediatrics http://www.HCDMAGAZINE.COM
Healthcare Design - September 2024

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