Originally published in Interiors & Sources
03/01/2010
Safe Haven
TAYLOR’s design for a new children’s hospital in Long Beach evokes a mythical journey for its heroic patients.
Photography by Assassi Productions
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The lobby, filled with sites and images of the beach, plays an important role in creating distractions. Behind kid-friendly facades are the gift shop, the family resource center, a staff and community
The lobby, filled with sites and images of the beach, plays an important role in creating distractions. Behind kid-friendly facades are the gift shop, the family resource center, a staff and community
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The lobby, filled with sites and images of the beach, plays an important role in creating distractions. Behind kid-friendly facades are the gift shop, the family resource center, a staff and community conference center, and a play area.
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There are overnight facilities as well as soothing lounge areas. Numerous windows bring in plenty of natural light.
There are overnight facilities as well as soothing lounge areas. Numerous windows bring in plenty of natural light.
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There are overnight facilities as well as soothing lounge areas. Numerous windows bring in plenty of natural light.
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The goal for the design team was to create a playful environment, while at the same time designing and equipping state-of-the-art spaces where physicians, nurses, staff and families could work their h
The goal for the design team was to create a playful environment, while at the same time designing and equipping state-of-the-art spaces where physicians, nurses, staff and families could work their h
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The goal for the design team was to create a playful environment, while at the same time designing and equipping state-of-the-art spaces where physicians, nurses, staff and families could work their healing magic.
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Additional challenges for the architects were to make the building seismically secure and environmentally friendly.
Additional challenges for the architects were to make the building seismically secure and environmentally friendly.
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Additional challenges for the architects were to make the building seismically secure and environmentally friendly.
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CONTACT
In December 2009, Miller Children’s Hospital opened the doors on an approximately $150 million, 120,000-square-foot expansion project that gives the extended Long Beach, California community a “safe haven” for ill or injured children.
The design for the new facility developed from a mandate to expand surgical services into the creation of a healing environment that provides the most advanced medical care and comfort for young patients and their families. Working closely with Miller Children’s administration and staff, health care architecture specialists TAYLOR created an “architecture of distraction” that engages and comforts.
“Inspired by the often-told story of the hero’s journey, and also by the way Long Beach’s shores touch the lands of children all around the world, we began to imagine a magic castle by the sea,” says architect Linda Taylor. “It would be a fitting refuge for a hero.”
But the project was undertaken just as a perfect storm of poor economic conditions formed. Miller Children’s design team had to make hard choices about what must be built, what could be built, and what would have to wait. A series of value engineering exercises began with TAYLOR and Turner Construction, reanalyzing systems and spaces to achieve as much as possible—finding replacement ways of conveying the hero’s journey and castle refuge concepts, maintaining a lot of the whimsy and childlike concepts—while taking considerable cost out. These measures included:
- Square footage reduction: in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), an original plan to have all private spaces was modified to have one in six spaces isolated behind sliding glass doors; the remainder would be made private only by curtains.
- Leaving designated spaces unfinished: 24 of 48 planned NICU beds were shelled in, as well as adjacent spaces designated for families such as sleepover rooms. The entire general pediatric floor planned for 24 private rooms was shelled in.
- Distraction features reduction: a seaside boardwalk in the lobby was replaced with colorful painted surfaces; water features and a moat monster were left out. Exterior banners meant to evoke castle imagery were left out (although their specially engineered stanchions remained in order to add them back when funding becomes available).
CONTACT:
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CLIENT
MEMORIAL CARE HEALTH SYSTEMS
MILLER CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL,
LONG BEACH
2801 Atlantic Ave.
Long Beach, CA 90806
(562) 933-5437
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PROJECT TEAM
ARCHITECTURE & INTERIOR DESIGN
TAYLOR
2220 University Dr.
Newport Beach, CA 92660
(949) 574-1325
CONTRACTOR
Turner Construction
CONSTRUCTION MANAGER
Cleo Enterprises, LLC
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STRUCTURAL ENGINEER
TMAD Taylor & Gaines
INTERIOR DESIGN & ENVIRONMENTAL GRAPHICS
Ford Design
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS
Rabben Herman Design Office, Ltd.
ACOUSTICAL
Newson, Brown & Associates
PHOTOGRAPHY
Assassi Productions
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