Children's Medical Center at Legacy, Plano, TexasType of facility: Children's hospital
Project architect: PageSoutherlandPage/Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects
Construction manager: Austin Commercial
Completed: September 2008
Size: 328,000 square feet
Cost: $95 million
Cost per square foot: $290
It was originally intended to be a suburban primary-care center that would direct patients to the main campus of the Children's Medical Center in Dallas.
But Children's Medical Center at Legacy—located on an 84-acre parcel known as Legacy Park—was ultimately built as a satellite location that mirrored the existing 314-bed hospital's academic medical center operation.
“That changed while the building was under construction,” says R. Doss Mabe, a partner with Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects in Los Angeles. “That meant many more physicians on staff, and made it less community-based and more based on the academic medical center model and we had to deal with the implications.” These included providing more space for educational and office functions, Mabe says.
View the Design Awards photo gallery
Read more profiles of the Design Awards winners The property had been used as pasture to graze horses and cattle, and it was decided that one way to make the facility unique was to lease part of the land so it could continue to be used for this purpose. Patient rooms and public spaces look out over this area as well as a creek, gardens and a lake.
“We had this really beautiful site and one of our goals early on was to maximize patient views,” Mabe says. “My first thought was, ‘Boy, this would be incredible if you could still have these animals around in a kids' hospital.' ”
Landscaping isn't only an outdoor focus, however. There also are two indoor gardens: one geared toward adults as a respite area and the other offers opportunities for pediatric patients and their siblings to play.
There are also “family rooms” with facilities for adults to work and for kids to play. Areas are also available for families to prepare their own food.
The hospital's attempts at creating “positive distractions” received praise from contest judge Sally Gammon.
“I loved this,” says Gammon, president and CEO of Allentown, Pa.-based Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network. “I thought, for children, it was exciting and a place where they could go and get all sorts of stimulation to keep their minds off their illness.
