Things are looking up

Photo by Halkin/Mason Photography

FACILITY:Tenet Healthcare Corp. St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children

LOCATION: Philadelphia

ARCHITECT: EwingCole Philadelphia

No matter how hard adults may try, it can be difficult to see things through the eyes of a child. But that’s exactly what EwingCole designers achieved with this uplifting space at St. Christopher’s Hospital (Tenet Healthcare Corp.) for Children in Philadelphia.

The ceiling was designed to relate to children given their penchant for looking up.  The design used standard ceiling tiles and standard soffit ends to create a changing variety of conditions, with the higher ceiling above exposed to allow the space to breathe. The voids between the colored stripes were occasionally filled with pendant lights that accentuated the openings in the ceiling.

The images were selected partly from a competition the hospital held and other photos, and were themed around children and teenagers at play. The images incorporated children in different play activities ranging from sports to blowing bubbles with the hope of resonating with children and teenagers of different ages and backgrounds.

The photographs were transformed through pixelization and color changes to create a more abstract set of images that engage light through translucency and complement the deeper colors of the ceiling and furniture.