Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta

This campus will be the home of a new hospital, the Center for Advanced Pediatrics and support staff offices. With easy access from I-85, the new campus will give the hospital system room to grow decades into the future. Photo Credit: Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.

Featured Articles 

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Plans to Build Extensive Campus, Transform Pediatric Healthcare

HCO News Staff 3289 Views , , , , ,

By Roxanne Squires

ATLANTA — Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta is on a mission to completely transform the way pediatric healthcare will be delivered to future generations.

This month, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta announced the team of architects and consulting partners for new campus and hospital at North Druid Hills and Interstate 85 (I-85), which will replace the organization’s current location at Egleston hospital with a new campus and hospital at North Druid Hills and I-85. Children’s has also engaged industry-leading consultants for its support office building, planned at the northern side of the campus along the I-85 frontage road.

“This team blends the local, national and international expertise necessary to create the facilities our patients need in a highly efficient and effective manner,” said Chris Chelette, Children’s vice president of planning, design, and construction, in a statement. “Our consulting partners have embraced our goal of creating a transformative environment for pediatric healthcare.”

The new $1 billion project of the North Druid Hills Campus will include a 446-bed hospital, a highly developed pediatrics center with support buildings, and an additional 20-plus acre of green space that will create miles of walking trails and paths. The Center of Advanced Pediatrics will open its doors this summer, allowing Children’s to meet the anticipated pediatric population growth while also better serving patient families within a healing, natural landscape. The completion of the project in its entirety is slated for 2026.

“Our goal is simple — to help more children get better faster,” said Donna Hyland, CEO of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, in a statement. “Georgia’s pediatric population is growing and our new campus will allow us to meet our state’s need while improving health outcomes for our patients in a transformative environment for our patient families, physicians, staff and our neighbors.”

The patient beds will be held in two towers, with an accompanying medical office building and adjoined cancer and blood disorders center. This will also include additional structures featuring a central energy plant that will allow for efficient and sustainable energy on site as well as parking decks.

Children’s has selected national firm HKS Inc. as lead architect for both the pediatric center and replacement hospital due to its understanding of holistic healthcare design. “This project is a catalyst and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transform the way pediatric healthcare will be delivered for generations to come,” said John Bienko, project lead at HKS.

Brasfield & Gorrie, with local offices, is currently serving as construction manager of the Center for Advanced Pediatrics project in progress. In addition, they will also serve as the construction manager for the replacement hospital. “We are honored to serve as the contractor for the future of pediatric care in Georgia,” said Dan Spinetto, healthcare regional operations manager for Brasfield & Gorrie.

Locally based Hendrick Inc. is the interior architect for the support building, with Kimley-Horn handling environmental and traffic engineering and HGOR, landscape design. DaVinci-Winstead Group is the overall project manager for the support building, the medical office building that adjoins the new hospital, and all campus parking decks. There will also be millions of dollars of roadwork done on and along I-85 to help clear space for the campus. The hospital has committed $40 million to road improvements that will include a road tunneled under I-85.

Kansas City, Mo.-headquartered JE Dunn will also have a key role on the master plan development, serving as the construction manager of the medical office building adjoining the new hospital as well as the central utility plant, parking decks and site improvements for the new campus. The construction of the support building and replacement hospital are being operated as separate projects since existing single-story office buildings for support staff cover a portion of the land that Children’s needs to clear before construction of the replacement hospital can commence.

The support staff will be able to move into its new home on the North Druid Hills campus before construction begins on the replacement hospital. Groundbreaking for the support building is expected this spring, with completion scheduled in the first quarter of 2020. This scheduling ensures that construction of the replacement hospital will be complete by 2025, which allows Children’s to meet growing bed demand for specialized pediatric care in Georgia efficiently. When the replacement hospital is complete, Egleston hospital will no longer serve as an inpatient facility.

Once completed, campus plans will be submitted to the Atlanta Regional Commission. Children’s expects that process to take four to six months. Construction on the campus is expected to begin in 2020.