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PROJECT Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas, Austin
CLIENT Seton Family of Hospitals
ARCHITECT Karlsberger
DESIGN TEAM Joseph F. Kuspan, AIA; Stephen T. Zilles, AIA; Kenneth C. Redman, AIA; Stephen G. Bennett, AIA; Daniel J. Clements III; Nicolas Banks; Paul J. Carney
CONTRACTOR White Construction Company
CONSULTANTS Bury & Partners (civil); ccrd partners (mechanical and electrical); Datum Engineers (structural); Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems (LEED); TBG Partners (landscape)
PHOTOGRAPHERS John Durant; Thomas McConnell

Healthcare architect ure has made significant strides over the past 20 years to provide environments that are more sensitive to the needs of patients, families, physicians, and staff. There is a greater understanding that wellness and healing are supported not only by advances in medicine and technologies in diagnostics and treatment, but also by the quality of the building's environment. Designed for the Seton Healthcare Network by Karlsberger of Columbus, Ohio, the Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas in Austin builds on these improvements to the healthcare environment and takes its design to an even higher level while also achieving ambitious goals for environmental stewardship.

Opened last summer, Dell Children's is a 473,000-sf, 169-bed facility dedicated to serving children in a 46-county area around Austin. Although designed to make a strong statement as a place for healing, much attention is being given to the project's goals to achieve LEED platinum certification. The focus on sustainable design was established by Seton at the onset of the project. At the recommendation of Karlsberger, a sustainable design facilitator was hired to lead a two-day charrette to outline sustainable goals. Attending were representatives of Seton's administration and network facilities offices, the entire design team, the construction manager, and experts in sustainable design, including Gail Vittori, co-director of the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems in Austin. The sustainable design team meetings were held regularly through the design phases and then quarterly through the life of the project to track LEED goals and progress. While final certification is not expected to be confirmed until the fall, the commitment of Seton and the entire design team towards environmental stewardship is clear and commendable.

The Dell Children's campus is constructed on 32 acres in the northwest area of the 722-acre brownfield site previously home to Robert Mueller Municipal Airport. The overall site is being redeveloped into a mixed-use "community," with the medical center campus being one of the early completed components. The campus also includes a medical office building, parking facilities, and a Ronald McDonald House. (The McDonald project, part of a national network of residential facilities for families with children undergoing hospital treatment, is registered for potential LEED platinum certification. Echols & Associates AIA of Austin designed the project for the charitable organization funded by the restaurant chain.)

The sustainable strategies of Dell Children's balanced a variety of methods to re-use, recycle, and conserve. Parking lot base and building backfill used 47,000 tons of recycled airport runway asphalt and base material. The construction project waste management program sent more than 4,000 tons of construction debris to recycling facilities in Central Texas and diverted 34,000 tons from landfills. Sustainable building materials and products include high-performance window systems, concrete with 30-percent fly ash in lieu of Portland cement, compressed wheat board in millwork, and low-VOC solvents, adhesives and paints. As part of the strategy for attaining a high LEED rating, materials were required to be procured within a 500-mile radius of the site.

Using sustainable materials was not always the most economical solution, but was the most sensitive to greater environmental concerns. For example, red sandstone quarried in West Texas was incorporated in the design to reflect its use on historic Central Texas courthouses. A similar sandstone was available from a quarry in Arizona for less cost, but use of that stone was not consistent with the sustainable goals. The facility also achieves a 35-percent reduction in potable water by reclaiming water for landscape irrigation, xeriscaping, and installing low-flow plumbing fixtures.

The most sophisticated sustainable design feature of the campus relates to energy production and usage. Seton teamed with the City of Austin and its electrical utility to construct an on-site Combined Heating Power (CHP) plant with a 4.5 megawatt, gas-fired turbine that generates 100 percent of Dell Children's electrical power. That not only removes the facility from the city's power grid, but the campus CHP plant achieves 75-percent efficiency in energy delivery (compared to a typical 30-percent efficiency via the electrical grid). In the event of its failure, two independent substations can provide full backup from the city's power grid, and a 1.5-megawatt "black start" diesel generator is installed on the campus for the medical center's life safety and critical branch systems.

The opportunity to develop a new children's hospital was significant for Seton. Previously known as the Children's Hospital of Austin and housed within Brackenridge Hospital near downtown Austin, the new facility could set itself apart from the larger and more "institutional" hospital with a different aesthetic and address. That new address - being at the old airport, about five miles northeast of downtown - required a highly visible landmark feature for the campus to be seen from nearby Interstate 35 and the surrounding neighborhoods. A 145-foot-tall "wayfinding tower" was designed to do just that, using colored glass panels with limestone veneer wrapping a steel frame and crowned by a white canopy symbolically referencing the traditional cornettes worn by Seton's founders, the Daughters of Charity. While the tower is indeed conspicuous, finding the entrance as one approaches the campus is not easy until the front of the hospital comes into full view. This may improve as the adjacent sites are developed.

In marked contrast, the facility's design provides clear interior orientation and wayfinding for visitors. Primary "streets" use natural materials, such as local limestone and red sandstone, combined with aluminum panels to establish a hierarchy of paths and zones. A "bridge" of mesquite planks separates areas of highest public traffic from clinical areas. Orientation is further enhanced through floor openings between levels and the integration of interior courtyards, visible from corridors and rooms at all four building levels. Storefront and stone veneer walls punctuated by window openings allow sunlit views to nature even from the heart of the building. The use of natural light, views to the gardens outside, and controlled access to the outdoors are evidence of a consistent design priority aligned with health and wellness.

The six courtyard environments were designed by TBG Partners in Austin to signify the six eco-regions of Central Texas that correspond to the 46 counties serviced. In addition to the courtyards, TBG Partners designed a three-acre "healing garden" that wraps around the nursing units on the west side. This space provides pleasant outdoor views from the patient rooms as well as playful features such as a "floating stone" fountain, butterfly garden, labyrinth, sundial, reflecting pool, and open air movie plaza.

Seton's commitment to improving the quality of indoor and outdoor spaces through original artwork is another key ingredient to the success of the project. Installed throughout the facility, art is to be seen, sometimes heard and touched, and always celebrating life. While many times playful, colorful and imaginative, the art appeals to everyone and does not limit itself to being cute or age-specific.The artwork contributes to creating a healthy place for all who stay, visit, or work there.

Overall, the extensive use of natural light, views and access to outdoor spaces, layering of rich colors and materials native to Texas, and integration of original art create an engaging, life-affirming place for children and their families - a world of small wonders, inside and out. Perhaps overly stimulating at times, the layers of materials and bright colors may just be the right ingredients that keep the public areas from becoming too quiet or serene when more animation and life are needed.

The real success of the project - greater than achieving remarkable goals for sustainability or setting a noteworthy example for advancing healthcare architecture - is in providing the best possible environment for the care of children.

--The writer is principal of Upchurch Architects in Brenham.