The 1,600,000 square foot (148,640 square meter) Sheikh Zayed Tower and Charlotte R. Bloomberg Children’s Center has transformed the Johns Hopkins Hospital campus by providing a light- and art-filled entry point with clarity of arrival and ease of navigation for patients and visitors. Inside, the thoughtful design has created separation between public and patient/service circulation, with organized clinical services in an efficient and flexible configuration.
The overarching goal was to create two hospitals within one building, with the adult hospital and children’s center each having its own identity and entrance while sharing space and services “behind the scenes.” In addition, the building needed to fit within the historic campus context of red brick and connect to multiple existing patient care buildings.
Primary components of the building are the adult and the children’s patient care towers, which are situated above an 8-story “diagnostic podium” base that links the two towers and contains both public spaces and a range of diagnostic services, allowing shared space between adults’ and children’s services. The podium includes emergency services, diagnostic imaging, surgery/interventional services, and faculty offices. It also features the women’s center, with C-section operating rooms, LDRs, ante/postpartum and acute care beds on the adult side and the NICU on the children’s side of the building. Teaching and collaboration spaces are provided throughout. Staff meeting, work, and educational areas access natural light and views throughout clinical spaces and faculty offices.
Public amenities include The Garden Café, which opens to an outdoor plaza facing the historic Phipps Building (the original Johns Hopkins Hospital building). This space includes a koi pond, garden pergola, and space for outside dining. The unique, light-filled sequence of spaces that connect patients and visitors from the entry court to the individual departments of the hospital are easy to navigate. Five hundred works of art by more than 70 artists are thoughtfully incorporated throughout the facility, enhancing every route from the front door to each patient room—and every stairwell, elevator lobby, and corridor in between. In fact, the façade itself is a work of art, with glass color and frit pattern designed by the artist Spencer Finch.