While children's hospitals have made significant advancements in design and lighting to alleviate fear and anxiety and create a more welcoming atmosphere, such efforts rarely extend to the parking garage. Cook Children’s Medical Center sought to evoke a sense of wonder from the moment young patients arrive at the garage drop-off area. By immersing visitors in a gently shifting wash of colors, the design redirects a child’s attention to the vibrant hues and movement, fostering the hope that the visit will be an uplifting experience.
The streamlined design features two runs of singular, arc-shaped panels that serve up an implied hug. Initially, the design team explored using 4-, 6-, and 12-in. pixels within each panel to facilitate dynamic color shows, but ultimately, a simplified solution was adopted, with each panel functioning as a single pixel. This approach was thematically effective while also offering savings in fixture and controls costs. Detailed calculations were performed to ensure proper functional lighting below, with particular attention to the placement of the UFO-style garage lighters in adjacent drive aisles and stalls, to prevent washing out the color saturation of the panels. The result provides excellent color saturation, a clean panel design, and a track method for easy alignment and spacing of the panels.
