Penn State Health Children’s Hospital Vertical Expansion Receives 2023 AIA Healthcare Award

We are pleased to announce PAYETTE’s second consecutive AIA Healthcare Award is awarded to Penn State Health Children’s Hospital Vertical Expansion. The Healthcare Design Awards showcase the best of healthcare building design, healthcare planning and healthcare design-oriented research.

When the Children’s Hospital opened in 2012, it marked the completion of a ten-year transformation of the Hershey Medical Center campus that began with its Cancer Institute. During the design stage, the base 4-story building was developed with a vertical expansion in mind. The three-story expansion was completed in 2021 and adds 133 new inpatient beds, including a new Women and Babies Center that provides 9 Labor and Delivery Rooms, 36 Post-Partum/Ante-Partum beds, a state-of-the-art C-Section suite, a new 56-bassinet Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), a Continuing Care Nursery and Pediatric Acute Care Unit.

Through the master planning, the Hershey Medical Center campus was conceived as a garden hospital, structured around a rich network of courtyards and gardens, connecting occupants with nature. In the Children’s Hospital, a rich palette of shapes, colors and materials further communicate the theme of healing through nature. The theme of nature extends into the Vertical Expansion. The themes of “Blossom” and “Treetop Bird Nest” identify the Women and Babies Center, guiding the selection of finishes and colors with integrated environmental graphics which create an uplifting healing environment that brings hope and joy to patients, families and visitors.

© Robert Benson Photography