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Circulation space in the Molecular Imaging Center.

Project: Elsie & Marvin Dekelboum Family Foundation
Molecular Imaging Center,
Children’s National Hospital, 111 Michigan Avenue, NW, Washington, DC

Architects/Interior Architects: HGA
Structural Engineers: Simpson Gumpertz & Heger
MEP Engineers/Lighting Designers: Leach Wallace Associates, Inc.
(now part of WSP)
General Contractor: HITT Contracting Inc.

How do you design a space knowing that its users are likely to
be terrified while there? Circulation space before renovation. Courtesy of HGA
In the past, the design of healthcare facilities has tended
to be blandly practical, if not downright insensitive to the imperative to meet growing demand. To complicate matters,
psychological well-being of patients and visitors alike. Over hospital managers are often also challenged by a scarcity of
time, the hospital setting acquired a rightfully-earned stigma resources and—most notably in urban areas—real estate. To
that reflects the stress and invasiveness of a visit. Children’s contend with this, leaders of the most recent wave of hospital
hospitals, in particular, have often felt “awkward” at best— renovations across the country have looked inward. They are
detailed with things like animated, grinning zoo animals adjusting to these conditions by expanding and enhancing
stickered on the walls as a way to comfort patients who are facilities within their existing footprint.
frightened and confused—not to mention anxious parents who The Elsie & Marvin Dekelboum Family Foundation
may be all too aware of the seriousness of the situation. Molecular Imaging Center occupies 5,251 square feet of
Medical advances and shifts in policy mean healthcare renovated space on the second floor of the Children’s National
facilities must balance multiple pressures—from the need to Hospital, part of the Medstar Health Campus adjacent to the
accommodate quickly evolving biomedical technology and its VA Hospital just off North Capitol Street in DC. In contrast to
required infrastructure, to industry consolidation, and an the stereotypical somber labyrinth associated with hospitals,

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