The 190,000-square-foot tower project marks the largest expansion for the hospital since it first opened in 1996. | Photo Credit (all): Courtesy of Connecticut Children’s
By Susan Haigh
Special amenities like balconies and outdoor spaces can fall victim to economics when a new space is being built. But that was a nonstarter for the new clinical tower project at Connecticut Children’s in Hartford, Conn., where such features are considered critical to patient and staff well-being.
The thoughtfully designed $326 million, eight-story structure, which opened in December 2025, boasts an outdoor space on every floor for staff, patients and families, except for the surgical floor. Each provides a welcome respite for those needing a breath of fresh air close to a patient or loved one receiving care at the state’s only dedicated children’s hospital.
“CT Children’s [leaders], from the very onset, said, ‘these are important elements that we want to maintain in our design. Let’s create these outdoor patios and outdoor green roofs because of what it will mean for the healing of everybody involved in healthcare,’” said Joshua DiGloria, a Project Executive with DPR Construction who has been involved with the project since its inception about four years ago.
“It was something that was very humbling as a team member to say, ‘alright, let’s figure out how to make those costs economical as possible and not take those away from the project,’” he said.
Child-Centered and Human-Centered Design
The 190,000-square-foot tower project marks the largest expansion for the hospital since it first opened in 1996. It houses multiple specialties, including a 50-bed neonatal intensive care unit with private rooms and enhanced outpatient services.
Both the interior and exterior of the structure are designed to reduce stress and anxiety, highlighted by child-centered features and dynamic lighting that mimic the natural 24-hour cycle of the sun to regulate a person’s biological clock. That includes a towering two-story illuminated “Tree of Life” sculpture that greets visitors as they enter the expansive light-filled lobby with floor-to-ceiling glass panels, nature-themed artwork and directional signage designed to ease stress.
“We’re really striving with our aesthetic environment to engage the imagination of every age range,” said Reaghan Schicker, Director of Planning, Design and Construction at Connecticut Children’s. “We also like to look at things a little bit differently, aiming to create environments where anxiety gives way to imagination, and where it feels less intimidating and more hopeful.”
Crafting a Calming Environment
Much of the imagery focuses on “high-anxiety touchpoints” for patients and families, including the initial bank of elevators resembling submarines, complete with portholes. Shannon Grad, Senior Director of Clinical Design and Care Delivery at Connecticut Children’s, said the hospital reviewed its own records, including autistic-patient data, and decided a submarine theme with muted colors would avoid potentially overstimulating the population.
“We’re really just applying the data, applying the science and making it appropriate for the kids we care for in the place that they’re at,” Grad said.
There’s evidence that more natural light and fresh air can have a positive effect on patient outcomes, Schicker said. One of the largest green spaces in the new tower is a therapeutic imagination-and-healing garden on the fifth floor, where there’s a major connection to the original structure that also had to be brought up to current structural code. It includes a section where specialists work directly with longer-term patients to get them outside to play and participate in activities. The design includes fun features such as a mini stage and pavers that children can use for chalk drawings. There are also spaces for quiet reflection for patients at the end of their lives.
Working Creatively with Constraints
Besides making sure patient care continued uninterrupted, the design and construction team had to work in a confined space, given the fact CT Children’s abuts Hartford Hospital on one side and a major city street on another. Planning tweaks were made to the interior of the tower to ensure staff-controlled balconies wouldn’t be on top of one another in a straight stack, like an apartment building, but rather in a teardrop pattern. That allows greater access to the outdoors — or at least the feeling of being outdoors.
Brian McKenna, CannonDesign’s client leader for the project, acknowledged it’s unusual to have direct access to the outdoors on every clinical floor, but the team understood the importance of this particular feature.
“[The balconies] were intended for places of respite,” he said. “Because we all know hospitals aren’t exactly stress-free.”
Project Data
- Project Name: Connecticut Children’s In-Patient New Tower
- Client: Connecticut Children’s
- Size: 193,000 square feet
- Cost: $326 million
- Architect: CannonDesign
- Structural Engineer: CannonDesign
- General Contractor: DPR Construction
- Landscape Architect: Fuss & O’Neill
- MEP Engineer: Salas O’Brien
- Civil Engineer: Fuss & O’Neill
- FF&E: Kitchen and Cafe Equipment – Trimark, Furniture -Interscape Commercial Environments and Red Thread, Medical Equipment – Blue Cottage, Information Systems – IMEG
- Owners Representative: Colliers Engineering
Product Data
- Terrazzo Flooring : Terrazzco, Depaoli Mosaic – custom
- Tile: Crossville Carpet: Milliken
- Casework: Solid Surface: Caesar Stone and Corian, Wright Architectural Millwork – Caesar Stone and Corian
- Specialty Ceiling: Professional Drywall Corporation Inc. – LINEA Plank Wood Grille Ceiling
- Acoustic Ceiling Tile: Professional Drywall Corporation Inc. – Certainteed
- Interactive Wall: Dillon Works
- Donor Wall: Cannon Design
- Salvaged Tree Artistry: City Bench
- Local Artist: Tracy MacLauchlan
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