Contract - October 2015 - 91

Caregiver Zone

Patient Portal

Family Zone

Treatment rooms (above)
feature magnetic glass
on some walls for patients
and staff to write notes,
and stainless steel headwalls
keep medical devices
organized. The pediatric
waiting zone (opposite, top)
has touch-screen monitors,
while the teen room (opposite,
middle) is enclosed with
curved-glass walls and
a sliding, curved-glass door.
A green wall on the roof
garden (opposite, bottom)
conceals the hospital's
rooftop ductwork.

Angie Fowler, a vibrant, art-loving teen, succumbed to
melanoma in 1983. In the brief months between her diagnosis
and death, Angie-an adolescent on the cusp of pediatric care-
underwent cancer treatment in adult care settings. That
inadvertently compounded her tragedy by offering few
age-appropriate comforts to the terminally ill 14-year-old.
To honor Angie, address her plight, and bring resources
to adolescent and young adult cancer patients, Angie's
family-including parents Char and Chuck Fowler, who
live in the Cleveland area-donated $17.5 million in 2011
to establish the Angie Fowler Adolescent & Young Adult
Cancer Institute, an outpatient facility at University Hospitals
(UH) Rainbow Babies & Children Hospital in Cleveland.
In addition to a state-of-the-art facility for young
cancer patients, "we wanted the space to be uplifting, positive,
and full of light," says Robert Telecky, project coordinator
with UH Construction Services. The hospital selected Atlantabased firm Stanley Beaman & Sears, known for designing
approachable pediatric facilities, to design Angie's Institute-
a complete renovation of UH Rainbows eighth floor and the
creation of a roof garden.
The design concept embraced light, nature, and color
in a warm and hopeful environment focused on the particular
needs of adolescent patients. To accomplish this, the Stanley
Beaman & Sears team-including Principal Burn Sears,
project architects Portia Ellis and Moses Waindi, interior
designer Robin Kirkman, and construction administration
architectural designer Brian Peterka-worked closely with
the UH Rainbow medical staff, the Fowlers, and focus groups
of patients and family members.
"We looked to provide an environment that is comfortable
and approachable for pediatric patients, but sophisticated
and attractive for young adults," Peterka says. The design
establishes separate spaces for pediatric and young adult
patients, and uses light to literally and metaphorically
guide the patient's experience.

The illuminated journey
Stanley Beaman & Sears devised "an abstract motif of the
'Illuminated Journey,' which comes from light and nature,"
Peterka says. Indeed, light and nature pervade Angie's Institute,
guiding patients and their families through the 27,500-squarefoot outpatient facility, which contains two treatment
wings, age-appropriate lounges, a pharmacy, a blood lab,
and a rooftop garden.

Upon entry, a 60-foot-long "color-changing Welcome
Wall sets the stage for the Illuminated Journey that continues
throughout the entire renovation," Peterka says. Against a
backdrop of white walls and multi-toned engineered-wood
floors and ceilings, the Welcome Wall greets visitors with
embedded monitors, which at times display an aquarium theme
in reference to Angie's interest in marine biology. Comprised
of thermoformed, backlit Corian, the wall connects the
pediatric and young adult clinics at opposite ends of the floor.
In the treatment wings, natural light filters through the
translucent glass walls of the 25 patient rooms, each outfitted
with cheerful gender-neutral color schemes, blonde wood
cabinets, and patient-customizable colored lighting. Against
the white-hued palette of the clinics' corridors, wood accents
flag the decentralized care team stations, which position
caregivers closer to treatment rooms and encourage
interaction between staff and patients.
On the ninth floor, an open-air garden occupies the
formerly uninhabited roof. "Created for patients and families
to 'get away' without having to leave," Telecky says, the garden
contains a vegetated wall, fanciful sculptures, cast-in-placeconcrete planting beds, and a colored-glass canopy, which
casts a rainbow onto the paved walking path below.

A sense of belonging
The age-specific lounges-spaces where patients can be
themselves-are among the most unique aspects of Angie's
Institute. For pediatric patients, a playroom offers child-sized
work surfaces, bright armchairs, and mounted touchscreen
monitors for interactive play. For young adult patients, a separate
teen lounge, complete with cushioned window seats, colorful
armchairs, and bar-height seating, contains its own interactive
element-a sizable audiovisual wall for Internet browsing,
movie watching, and video gaming. Large windows allow
ample light in, especially in the curved learning area called
Grant's Room, which can be isolated with sliding glass doors.
Multiple art installations, honoring Angie's love of art, punctuate
the interior of white walls, floors of Nora Centica rubber sheet
flooring and Centiva wood plank, and striated wood ceilings.
Well-received since opening, Angie's Institute is "bringing
a sense of warmth, welcome, and poetry to what could have
been a cold, clinical environment," Peterka says. Indeed,
while Angie has been gone more than 30 years, her memory
survives through the institute, offering young cancer patients
a sense of belonging and a path of hope during difficult times. c
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Contract - October 2015

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