Nationwide Children's Hospital Columbus, Ohio

Services Provided

Master Planning
Urban Design
Streetscape Design
Construction Documentation

People Involved

Rick Espe
Eric Lucas
John Petrushka
Tony Roell
Brett Weidl

Awards

2017 Columbus Landmarks Foundation James B. Recchie Design Award
2012 Indiana Chapter ASLA Merit Award
2012 Ohio Chapter ASLA Merit Award

Sustainable campus design in a neighborhood park-like setting.

Ranked one of “America’s Best Children’s Hospitals” by U.S. News & World Report, Nationwide Children’s Hospital embarked on a major campus expansion including a new 12-story, 700,000-square-foot inpatient bed tower, pediatric research facility, and 6-acre urban park and children's garden on its main campus in Columbus, Ohio.

In collaboration with OLIN, MKSK developed the facilities master plan for the entire medical district and was the prime consultant leading a multidisciplinary team of engineers, scientists, and lighting designers for the site infrastructure and improvements.

At the Parsons and Livingston Avenue intersection, a luminous ‘Grove of Light’ consisting of clustered illuminated beacons, defines the heart of the hospital campus.

Green infrastructure practices were incorporated throughout the campus, including rainwater harvesting and a 2.5 acre reduction in impervious surface. A 1-million gallon cistern captures all the site and building rainwater runoff for use in irrigating the new park. Two of the new, six acres of greenspace is an intensive green roof over a subsurface parking garage.

The new hospital tower and campus were designed as a cohesive and holistic healing environment that reaches beyond the campus itself, creating opportunities for the institution to become a good neighbor to the Near Southside community. Through the creation of therapeutic public open space, with direct links to the surrounding neighborhood, Nationwide Children’s Hospital has set a new pediatric hospital standard for ‘Healing and Community’.