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Waiting/Art Room.

architecture firm HGA has delivered an immersive which many deep-sea creatures create their own light.
environment designed to provide positive distractions. Expanding on the elemental connection the team had
Without sacrificing the functionality expected by already made with PULSE’s deep-sea references, “the
hospital staff, the renovation reflects bioluminescent theme was established from the start,”
a more humanistic approach to the patient experience. explained project architect Heidi McElroy.
The project expands upon a previously completed Responding to the vulnerability of its users, the
phase of HGA’s master plan for the hospital: the design for the facility now serves to instill a sense of
Pediatric Ultrasound Scanning Center (PULSE), which calm and otherworldliness—like a dream perhaps.
serves as the primary gateway through which patients Young patients respond to the simple graphics
enter the Molecular Imaging Center. For the earlier depicting deep-sea creatures, while more sophisticated
project, HGA had developed visual themes based on scientific references engage adults. It doesn’t look like
sea life. While such imagery may seem arbitrary, in a typical hospital space, but nor does it resemble an
fact there is a clever scientific connection between the aquarium. The deep-water references are abstracted
graphics and the purpose of the facility. Ultrasound is and rendered down to colors, outlines, and shadow-
not just a medical technology—it is also used by forms. Wayfinding and paths of travel have been
whales to communicate through the dense water of simplified to contribute to a reduction of stress.
the deep ocean. With the bioluminescence concept established,
Molecular imaging involves the use of biomarkers— HGA focused on furthering the deep-sea theme
usually dyes—to observe molecular pathways inside through color, light, and movement. Framing the
the body. This technique inspired its own set of marine narrative of the patient experience, visitors dive into a
imagery based on bioluminescence—the process by bioluminescent world signaled not only by the deep-

80 GOING DEEP