Photo: The graphic program was about encouraging kids to have fun, explore and engage with their surroundings. | Photo Credit (all): Laura Peters/CannonDesign
Inside the playful architecture and precise construction of the Children’s Hospital of Orange County’s new specialty care facility
By Lindsey Coulter
When families step inside the new Rady Children’s Health outpatient facility in Orange County, Calif., they encounter a facility designed to transform how children experience healthcare. The nine-story, 300,000-square-foot outpatient building consolidates a wide range of pediatric services under one roof, streamlining care for families who often need to see multiple specialists.
The tower is the product of a multi-year collaboration between CannonDesign and McCarthy Building Companies and project manager Jacobs. Together, the team delivered a facility that is as technically advanced as it is imaginative.
“This facility provides specialty care,” said CannonDesign interior designer Hilary Thomas-Herd. “There are patients who need to see various specialists, so this is sort of a one-stop shop for seeing those types of caregivers.”
The new tower centralizes five floors of specialty clinics and offers a comprehensive imaging center, oncology infusion services, a research institute floor for clinical trials and pediatric research, and other family-centered amenities and resources.
By consolidating diverse services, the facility reduces stress on families while fostering collaboration between providers. It also expands Rady Children’s Orange County campus, complementing the Bill Holmes Tower, completed in 2012 — another product of thepartnership between CannonDesign, McCarthy Building Companies and Jacobs.
Dynamic Inside and Out
Anchoring a visible corner in Orange, California, the tower was designed to be both a civic landmark and a welcoming destination for children receiving care. The building’s curved shape and red-and-silver façade with solar fins set it apart, but the fins are more than simply decorative. Dynamic integrated lighting creates a shimmering, kinetic effect that is most dense at the primary corner and tapers at the edges, giving the building a sense of motion.
A landscaped terrace follows the building’s curvature, reinforcing the sense that the tower rises organically from the surrounding environment. That curvilinear approach continues inside as well.
“Inside you’ll see a lot of curves on the floors, ceilings and the walls,” Thomas-Herd said. “The basis of that is the idea that the healthcare journey, the journey toward wellness, sometimes it’s not always a straight line. Sometimes you have to veer off a path or take a different path to get to where you need to be. The curves within this building reinforce that concept.”
Wellness, Rendered Playfully
The graphics and branding program, led by Chris Hayes of CannonDesign, anchors the building in Rady Children’s wellness philosophy.
“The whole building is centered on the science of wellness and the five pillars of health: movement, sleep, nutrition, mental health and relationships,” Hayes explained. “We wanted people to learn through play, without knowing that they were learning. It’s all about informing families what your body needs every day to be healthy. While it’s definitely for kids, we made sure families can learn and benefit, too.”
These organic learning moments occur through kid-sized wall graphics (centered on the healthcare system’s friendly mascot, Choco the Bear), multi-lingual illuminated niches, and interactive waiting areas where children can play and learn about topics such as circulation, nutrition and bone health — without ever realizing they’re in an educational setting.
Other features include life-sized light-bright walls where children can create shapes and patterns as well as shadow-play walls for movement-based interaction. Custom cloud lighting in exam rooms creates calming ambiance, while immersive murals inspired by Southern California’s natural landscapes enhance dedicated play areas and help to reduce stress.
Toys, Nostalgia and the Mattel Partnership
One of the most striking design moves is the integration of Mattel toys into shadowboxes across elevator lobbies on floors four through nine.
“Every floor has a wellness theme like ‘let’s discover’ or ‘let’s enjoy the moment,’” Hayes said. “Our initial concept was to inspire children but also bring in nostalgia for families. This takes Rady Children’s ‘Long Live Childhood’ mantra to the next level. We had this idea of the arcade claw game that drops down and you try to pick up your favorite toy. It grew from there.”
Inspired by the project, Mattel donated Hot Wheels, Polly Pocket, UNO, Little People, Barbie and Thomas the Tank Engine toys. The company also aimed to design the displays and toys to reflect the experiences of the children coming to the building, including one with a cochlear plant, and some with prosthetic limbs.
“Kids obviously gravitate to the displays because they’re toys, but even parents can get engaged. It’s super fun,” Hayes said. “That one idea that we drew evolved into something that, I think, will be unique to this hospital.”
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