Providing comprehensive pediatric specialty care in the heart of Atlanta

Arthur M. Blank Hospital - Programming, Planning, and Design

Children's Healthcare of Atlanta selected a 70-acre (28-hectare) campus for the home of their new comprehensive pediatric specialty hospital and Level I pediatric trauma center. They wanted to preserve as much land and greenspace as possible, embracing the healing power of nature and respecting the environment. They engaged our team of programmers, master planners, architects, and interior designers to help realize their vision.

Our master plan created over 20 acres (8 hectares) of gardens and green space along with extensive walking trails connecting the buildings on campus and the community. In the lobby areas and waiting spaces, we focused on filling them with natural daylight and providing connections to the gardens. The majority of patient rooms capture sweeping views of Atlanta’s Downtown, Midtown, and Buckhead skylines, as well as the city’s beautiful tree canopy, earning the hospital its nickname, A City in a Forest.

During the design process, we transformed an empty 114,000-square-foot (10,591-square-metre) warehouse into a cardboard city—one of the country’s largest, full-scale hospital mock-ups—to test the layouts, adjacencies, and design options through a series of rigorous, high-fidelity clinical simulations. An interdisciplinary team of caregivers, observers, and designers simulated patient scenarios to actively study the interaction between patients, personnel, and the built environment. This enabled the team to identify patient safety issues, anticipate patient needs, discover design-related operational challenges, and explore solutions for proposed modifications. We completed design adjustments before construction, saving an estimated $90 million in possible changes.

Through their affiliation with Emory University and Morehouse School of Medicine, the 19-story, 446-bed Arthur M. Blank Hospital also provides conference and simulation spaces. Innovative labs include a good manufacturing practice (GMP) lab to advance innovative cellular therapies, the Marcus Center for Pediatric Cellular Therapy lab, and 3D printing labs to design lifesaving treatment options for patients.

Centered in nature, the hospital delivers innovative and advanced care for children today and for generations to come.