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Atlanta’s newest pediatric healthcare facility is not only equipped to handle the immediate needs of young patients. It's also forward-thinking in its capacity and design to anticipate the region’s future healthcare demands.

Providing supportive care for inpatient pediatric patients and their families was a driving force behind every amenity at Children’s Arthur M. Blank Hospital, which opened in Fall 2024. The hospital combines world-class healthcare services with quality-of-life features, helping children — and their families — feel at ease as they undergo treatment.

All of the stakeholders had a vision for this hospital, including our engineers and designers, but there’s also the doctors, nurses and child life specialists who provided insight on what the children needed to be more comfortable and positively distracted.

Target Value Delivery

Located on Children’s North Druid Hills campus, Arthur M. Blank Hospital is a two-million-square-foot facility with specialized care and innovations to serve children and their families from across the state of Georgia and beyond.

We previously worked on Children’s Scottish Rite and Egleston Hospitals, also in Atlanta, and gleaned important learnings that were adapted into this project’s early master-planning phase in partnership with Dallas-based architectural firm HKS.

As Engineer of Record for building systems, we provided services for mechanical, electrical and plumbing; fire and life safety; and lighting design for various critical components of the North Druid Hills campus. Our scope included the 19-story hospital and attached 16-story pediatric clinics building (also known as the South Tower), as well as the central utility plant, which is designed for the hospital’s long-term growth and can power the entire facility during a power outage.

As consultant to Earl Swensson Associates, Inc. (ESa), Architect of Record for this project, we collaborated with ESa and many other design partners under a target value delivery approach, which established Children’s value priorities and set cost targets before the design stage. This method aligned the design and construction process to avoid cost-overruns and ensured that the hospital was built efficiently.

“The trade partners (aka specialty subcontractors) worked hand-in-hand with designers throughout design development and construction documentation, so that we didn’t lose any time when we started the building process,” said Douglas Lacy, PE, senior vice president and senior technical director, Property and Buildings at WSP in the U.S. “That’s how you shave months off the schedule, and that’s why we used target value delivery.”

  

Location

  • Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Client

  • Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta

Project Status

  • Completed
Acres of greenspace
20
Hospital height in stories
19
Number of patient beds
446
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©JEREMIAH HULL PHOTOGRAPHY
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta combines world-class healthcare services with quality-of-life features that help make children comfortable as they undergo treatment.

World-Class Medical Services

The hospital includes 446 patient beds, 69 emergency exam rooms and 19 general operating rooms and is the only dedicated Level 1 pediatric trauma center in Georgia. It has an inpatient dialysis unit, transplant services, infusion center, emergency department, outpatient lab and radiology, plus a Special Care Unit for the treatment of patients with highly infectious diseases.

Also included in the hospital is the Marcus Center for Cellular Therapy, an in-house lab that will facilitate the manufacturing and delivery of cellular and gene therapies, which are some of the most novel treatments available to patients with diseases resistant to standard care.

Each patient room at Arthur M. Blank Hospital features technology for remote services, multiple television screens for patient and family members’ separate uses and a digital whiteboard to show the patient’s care team and daily schedule.

Another key component of a pediatric hospital like this is plentiful amenities and spaces for the patient’s siblings, parents, grandparents and others that are there to offer support.

Patient and Family Experience

The hospital uses a real-time location system for medical equipment tracking, staff duress assistance and staff identification in patient rooms. When a clinician enters a patient’s room, they are identified by a pop-up message on the room’s digital screens.

The hospital’s second floor hosts a family center with a resource library, computer rooms and office space. Patient representatives are available to meet with families in post-care and prayer rooms for spiritual support. There are also laundry facilities, family lounges and kitchenettes on each floor, and each patient room has a sofa with a fold-out for parents.

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©JEREMIAH HULL PHOTOGRAPHY
The hospital’s state-of-the-art technology is designed with young patients in mind, with features like calming images shown to patients above the CT scanner.

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©JEREMIAH HULL PHOTOGRAPHY
The hospitals’ second floor hosts a family center with a resource library.

A Sense of Wonder

The hospital campus is nestled in 20 acres of greenspace that offers patients exposure to nature as they are treated, and patient rooms are strategically positioned to optimize natural light and panoramic views.

“There are gardens, meditative spaces, and play areas in the campus exterior, and there are designs in the hospital interior that emote a forestry feel to help entertain children and their families,” said Douglas Lacy, PE, senior vice president and senior technical director, Property and Buildings at WSP in the U.S.

The hospital’s lighting installations also help to create a warm and inviting atmosphere.

“The team’s lighting program for this hospital is designed to support wayfinding, but it’s also about creating a sense of wonder for the children,” said Lilian Fu, WSP vice president and national lighting practice lead for Property and Buildings in the U.S.

These creative experiences and interior design elements are part of the hospital’s foundation and will support care and services at one of the nation’s top children’s hospitals for years to come.

Meet the Visioneers

Douglas Lacy, an electrical engineer with more than 20 years of experience, collaborated with WSP’s lighting team and various hospital stakeholders to deliver a state-of-the-art, Future Ready® hospital that holistically serves the needs of patients and their families.

We hope the kids will feel like kids in the play spaces, libraries, child-life and school support spaces, while adults understand that the care environment provided for their loved one is world-class.

Other challenges that we have overcome