Design of new children's hospital aims to bring healing

When New-York based interior designer Carolyn BaRoss got to Charleston, she hit the streets and the parks with her camera, snapping photos throughout the Lowcountry.

The task for her and other Perkins+Will colleagues: to translate the charm and inspiration captured in those photos into the design of the new $385 million Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital and Pearl Tourville Women’s Pavilion at the Medical University of South Carolina.

BaRoss, a principal designer at Perkins+Will, is the firm’s health care interior design director. This is not new territory for her. She led the interior design for the Charlotte R. Bloomberg Children’s Center at Johns Hopkins, a $1.3 billion, 12-story project.  

The fun challenge in Charleston was tapping into its “relentlessly charming” and “consistently beautiful” environment for the design process, she said. A bonus: MUSC had chosen to involve families in the design process so she’d have that input to guide her decisions as well.

She and colleagues listened to what those families had to say and let it be the inspiration for the new children’s hospital, slated to open in 2019.

“I think that there’s just so much energy from the care team, and it’s such a collaborative process with the families. There’s just such a genuine interest in creating an amazing space where you can make such a big difference. It’s such a stressful time for people who have sick children, and the kind of work that we do can have such an impact.”

BaRoss and her team drew on Charleston’s natural environment and beauty to give each of the 10 floors in the 625,000 square-foot building a distinct feel, with different themes and color palettes.

“First of all, there’s no other Charleston. This is such a wonderful, special city and location, and the natural environment – the water, the marsh, the history, the culture – there’s so much you can draw on and incorporate.”

BaRoss, a principal designer at Perkins+Will, is the firm’s health care interior design director. This is not new territory for her. She led the interior design for the Charlotte R. Bloomberg Children’s Center at Johns Hopkins, a $1.3 billion, 12-story project.  

The fun challenge in Charleston was tapping into its “relentlessly charming” and “consistently beautiful” environment for the design process, she said. A bonus: MUSC had chosen to involve families in the design process so she’d have that input to guide her decisions as well.

She and colleagues listened to what those families had to say and let it be the inspiration for the new children’s hospital, slated to open in 2019.

“I think that there’s just so much energy from the care team, and it’s such a collaborative process with the families. There’s just such a genuine interest in creating an amazing space where you can make such a big difference. It’s such a stressful time for people who have sick children, and the kind of work that we do can have such an impact.”

BaRoss and her team drew on Charleston’s natural environment and beauty to give each of the 10 floors in the 625,000 square-foot building a distinct feel, with different themes and color palettes.

“First of all, there’s no other Charleston. This is such a wonderful, special city and location, and the natural environment – the water, the marsh, the history, the culture – there’s so much you can draw on and incorporate.”

The storytelling themes are mapped to the floors. At the ground level, there is a two-story lobby, where the goal is to create a warm welcome. “And level one is heroes of the Lowcountry, in particular because the emergency department is there, and we were inspired by service dogs, therapy dogs, first responders and children helping other children.”

BaRoss said they wanted to pull from the great stories that have arisen during fundraising efforts for the hospital, including how children have played a key role. “So there are all kinds of stories that can be pulled and expressed in different theme ideas.”

On every floor there will be a theme wall, a distinct color and clear signage so it’s easy to navigate, reducing the stress that families may feel in a new place, she said.

On the second floor the theme is beaches. On floor three it changes to the comforting vistas of the marsh. The fourth floor relates to women’s services, so the theme is Lowcountry arts. The fifth floor houses the neonatal intensive care unit and the theme for that is springtime in the Lowcountry. The sixth floor has administrative offices and the theme is Lowcountry architecture and how that architecture can facilitate collaboration. The seventh floor is the amenities floor. It will include a conference center, a meditation chapel, a large child life play room, an outdoor deck and food services. The theme for that floor is Lowcountry landscape and taking respite.

BaRoss said the outdoor play area will be a spectacular continuation of the child life area, and there is infrastructure planned into the building that could accept a future roof garden there, if funding is found.

“So we were thinking about recreation and wellness around the sole idea of playing in your yard and being outside and joggling boards. And we thought about the Angel Oak,” she said, referring to the Southern live oak tree on Johns Island that is a tourist attraction. “That’s actually the inspiration in the mediation chapel, so there will be some art glass with imagery of the Angel Oak.”

Floors eight and nine are for patient areas dedicated to acute care. The eighth floor theme is cruising around the Lowcountry. “We thought it would be really fun to express all different ways of getting around in this area and using imagery of vehicles for people with mobile impairments, so there’s this sense of inclusiveness. We were thinking about shrimp boats, horse and carriages and all kinds of vehicles.”

The ninth floor will feature Lowcountry adventures and activities such as fishing, bird watching and sailing.

The 10^th floor is dedicated to patients with cancer and blood disorders. Its theme: rooftops over the Lowcountry.

“Here, the thought is looking out and what do you see? It’s steeples and cool things on rooftops. We’re hoping to incorporate things like binoculars to look out and see everything going on, the bridges and the clouds.”

BaRoss likes capturing the human element in the design, encouraging people to share their dreams and stories, just as parents were asked to share their stories as the hospital was being designed.

There is a wall when visitors come into the lobby that will feature stories or children’s artwork. “Hopefully in the future, if there’s funding for it, we’ll be able to put in digital displays.”

Outside of patient rooms, designers are creating a little place families can customize as their “front porch,” with a rail where they can hang their artwork and decorate their front door if they want.

The designers are brainstorming other ways to get patients and parents to open up and share their experiences. That could involve technology and message boards, a way to create a sense of community.

Play areas will help create community as well. One design feature inspired by BaRoss’ walks in historic downtown is the use of a low, green “hedge wall.” It will have see-through holes with fun surprises tucked within that will be near waiting areas.

“There was one really great house with a brick wall that was overgrown with very tightly cropped greenery, and we looked underneath and there was an opening in it with an iron gate that was really beautiful, and you could see into the yard. We were thinking how cool it could be if we could create these sort of niches in this wall, and it could become locations for discovery where kids could walk to the different floors and find things in these niches that could be related to the theme of that floor.”

For example, if it were the marsh and creek floor, there would be nests of sea birds that patients and families would find that could either be made by artists or by the kids.

Research shows that design does matter when it comes to creating a supportive, healing environment, one reason BaRoss loves doing design plans for children’s hospitals. It’s called “evidence-based design,” and it shows how certain elements can aid healing. Having access to natural green spaces may allow patients to need less pain medication, for example.

“And that’s just the beginning of it. There are acoustics, and we’re talking to the clinicians here about the effect of a lot of environmental factors on people and children on the autistic spectrum, so glare, lighting and sounds and the effect of all of that.”

Research shows giving patients choice and control improves their experience and possibly even the treatment outcome. Comfort is another factor in the design. BaRoss and her team have thought through overnight accommodations in the rooms, trying different sleep furniture to offer the best options. There are privacy spaces where parents can do laundry, take showers or just unwind.

BaRoss says a project like this is so satisfying because she’s healing through design.

“That’s really for families and kids who need positive distraction. How are you empathetic about what people are going through and how do you understand what that is? How do you create an environment where families can continue to live their daily lives while they’re going through this? How do you create areas of privacy and respite to get away? How do you create a place where people can sit on a chair with a child, curl up, put their arm around them? That’s what we want to do.”