Boston Children’s Brookline
Boston Children’s Hospital
Completed: 2020 (Levels 1-5) & 2023 (Levels 6-8)
Brookline, MA
2022 Boston Society of Architects - Healthcare Facilities Design Honor Award Recipient
2021 Center for Health Design - Healthcare Environment Award Recipient
LEED Silver
Uplifting, whimsical, and designed with neurodiversity in mind, Boston Children’s Brookline is home to the newly created Brain, Mind, and Behavior Center: providing world-class collaborative care and translational research for those with neurodevelopmental or neuropsychiatric conditions. To serve this unique population, the project choreographs a uniquely engaging yet calm, comfortable, and safe experience. The facility’s wayfinding, graphics, and design theme “The Amazing You” celebrates the capacity of our brains to wonder, discover, explore, and imagine, surpassing limitations of the body. Instagram-able moments permeate the project, offering moments of levity that elevate the patient experience from stressful to whimsical.
The design responds directly to research about the autism spectrum. Walls and ceilings were activated to encourage eyes to stay up and engaged while a network of quiet and safe spaces were carved out for when overstimulation proves challenging. Diagnostic boards were covered to limit temptation of dangly cords. Floor to ceiling windows were tinted with Family Advisory Council-approved frosting to limit fears of heights and reduce anxieties over patterning. All of these are examples of how an outpatient experience can be as considered and unique as those who visit.
