President Visits Construction Site of Nationwide Children’s Hospital
President Barack Obama at the Nationwide Children's Hospital Construction site.
Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio is one of the fastest growing pediatric centers in the country. Recognizing a need to grow within a planned framework, the Hospital commissioned OLIN to lead a multidisciplinary team to develop a strategy for expansion. OLIN‘s master plan envisions a health care campus that pairs growth opportunities with reinvestment in the neighborhood and public open space.
The planning framework provides principles to guide future expansion and reinforce the hospital’s mission of care and healing. In addition, OLIN designed a six acre healing park for the campus, composed of a series of playful children’s gardens and an illuminated gateway at the intersection of Parsons and Livingston Avenues, both additionally enhanced by an allee of street trees and planted medians. President Barack Obama recently toured the Parsons and Livingston Avenues construction site as it is the ten-thousandth Recovery Act road project to get underway. The road improvement project is expected to create over 3,000 construction jobs and contribute to the broader economic development effort underway in the Columbus area.
OLIN’s plan features a sweeping lawn with three gardens connected by meandering woodland paths. The gardens are proposed over a below-grade parking structure, forming two and a half acres of rooftop landscape. A subsurface stormwater recycling system will serve irrigation needs on site.
As a key principle of the design, relationships between exterior and interior spaces are to establish a sense of continuity and a visual connection from the inside to the vibrant natural materials and plants outdoors.
