To guide the most significant redevelopment project in its history, Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota collaborated with Ellerbe Becket, an AECOM company, to develop a vision that merges architecture, landscape and art in a way that is transforming the healthcare experience. The project reaches beyond the institution to transform its urban neighborhood by establishing a revitalized “sense of place.”
The project expands the campus with a new LEED® Gold-certified Specialty Care Center, which houses specialty clinics – including hematology and oncology – as well as an outpatient pharmacy and retail center, connected to a new parking structure. A curved, glass skybridge links to the existing hospital. More than 9,000 square feet of the building’s roof is covered with plant materials and an embracing plaza connects to healing gardens.
Upgrades to existing facilities include a new main entry and a seven-story bed tower addition. The expansion offers enlarged and enhanced operating rooms, a new emergency department, new neonatal and pediatric intensive care units, a new cardiovascular center and an inside-the-hospital Ronald McDonald House. All existing patient rooms are being converted to private rooms with sleep-in space for parents. Extensive use of glass along the street allows abundant daylight to reach the interior public spaces, while providing important connections between inside and outside.