UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland unveiled its new Outpatient Center, designed in partnership by HDR and Taylor Design. The new six-story, state-of-the-art facility adds 89,000 square feet of exam rooms, treatment facilities, and family support services, making UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland the East Bay’s largest specialty care center for kids.

Designed as a LEED for Healthcare Silver facility, the project embodies the visions and ideas of its neighbors and community, integrating with the existing medical campus, and the north Oakland neighborhood in which it resides. The corner location on Martin Luther King Way allows the building to create a gateway, welcoming visitors to the campus as they pass its colorful glass and panel façade. Punctuated along the exterior surface, colored boxes create cozy windowsills with views of the street activities below. The design elements strive to create a harmony with the existing hospital building, while taking a bold leap forward, celebrating Children’s Hospital Oakland’s second century of pediatric healthcare. The overarching design story of “On to Greatness” mirrors the healing process as those who visit Children’s Oakland go onward, to live full, rich lives. 

Through active floor patterns, art installations and super-graphics in clinical care areas, patients and their families are offered a positive distraction, encouraging a positive state of mind. Each clinical floor has its own color palette and carries an aspirational theme: Hope, Growth, Reach, Soar, and Dream. The inspiration for this concept was based on a child’s journey and their healing experience on UCSF Benioff’s campus. The result is a bright, playful environment filled with vibrant graphics, and local children’s artwork that engage children and enhance exam room walls.

Comments from the Team

 “Our focus was always with the facility’s connection to the children and community,” said Todd A. Tierney, AIA, Architecture Regional Director and Senior Vice President, HDR. “The new outpatient care center is designed to create a safe and protective environment where families can actively participate with the caregivers in the care of their child.”

“The design team worked with physicians, families, staff, neighbors and patients to create a vision for the masterplan so that it reflects the greater voice of the hospital’s community,” said Aaron Hanigan, Senior Project Architect, HDR. “When the people will make use of the facility are involved in the early concepts of the design phase, that facility can address the needs of many, bringing the services and requirements that keep that particular community healthy and safe to the forefront.”

“We focused on designing through the eyes of children,” said Allison Couture, lead interior designer, Taylor Design. “Our design concept is about celebrating the unlimited potential which lives within all children.”

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