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Many of the elements identified in the workshops were later incorporated into the hospital's design. Bold, bright colors became a central design theme. A sunroom brings the outdoors inside for patients unable to go outside. The central two-story space of the hospital not only orients building users and assists in wayfinding, but is also a theater in the round, complete with removable stage, lighting, and sound.

The welcoming of sick children and their families begins before they've even walked in the door, with covered, heated parking providing shelter from the harsh winter climate as children transfer to the hospital. Check-in is simplified through one central desk.

Family-friendly inpatient rooms provide curtained pullout beds with reading lamps for parents. Families arriving in the night have a place to stay and make breakfast before they find a hotel room.

A special pet visiting room, designed as a vestibule with one entrance from outside the hospital and one entrance from inside, allows inpatient children to spend time with pets. An aquarium, a music and art studio, and central gathering and play spaces make the hospital a lively, engaging place.

A family resource center with a library, counselors, and computer facilities, secluded on the second floor but visible from the first, supports families seeking to learn about a child's illness and how to live with it.

Six gardens, including an apple orchard, offer delight and respite to families going through a difficult time.

For healthcare providers, a highly functional building system organizes the hospital operations into three main areas, each with its own structured mechanical systems: Ambulatory Care, which includes medical offices and clinics; the Inpatient Unit tower; and the Diagnostic and Treatment Block. This separation and grouping of similar facilities and systems fosters efficient, smooth-flowing operations.

Interstitial floors in heavily serviced areas such as emergency, imaging, intensive care, and surgery allow maintenance and upgrading of service systems without disturbance of the constant activity in adjacent critical areas. The building's mechanical systems are designed to allow isolation of areas by floor, wing, or room in case of an infectious outbreak.

A master plan provides for future expansion that minimizes or eliminates disruption to existing facilities.

Benefits resulting from the collaborative design process are not confined to the hospital user group in which they originated. Throughout the programming and design process, Kasian's designers considered healthcare workers' needs in terms of an efficient, smooth-flowing, high-technology workplace. But they never considered the workers' inner child.

Yet when Milton Gardner recently returned to tour the Alberta Children's Hospital with one of its administrators, seeing the hospital through the administrator's eyes, Gardner realized that everything the design team achieved for the children's environment is enjoyed equally by staff. "That's a keeper idea for us," says Gardner.

Katharine Logan designs and writes to further a more meaningful and sustainable built environment.

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Alongside the main stair of Alberta Children's Hospital, a blue-tiled wall hints at the water-filled aquarium below. Photo: Robert Lemermeyer The central gathering space provides views of distant hills in Calgary. Photo: Robert Lemermeyer Bright colors were a common theme in the children's drawings produced in the workshops. Image: Courtesy of Kasian Architecture Interior Design and Planning Many of the children's requests were incorporated into the final hospital design. Image: Courtesy of Kasian Architecture Interior Design and Planning Emergency waiting room. Image: Courtesy of Kasian Architecture Interior Design and Planning A sunroom in the Oncology ward. Photo: Robert Lemermeyer A hallway near the common space. Photo: Robert Lemermeyer A nurse's station. Photo: Robert Lemermeyer Patient rooms include a built-in bed for parents, which can be separated by a curtain. Photo: Robert Lemermeyer A patient bathroom. Photo: Robert Lemermeyer   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.