MONTANA CHILDREN’S MEDICAL CENTER
KALISPELL REGIONAL HEALTHCARE

Kalispell, MT     l     110,000 SF     l     2019

Services Provided: Interior Design Visioning, Interior Design, Graphic Design

The challenge

The addition of the children’s hospital to its campus required a new identity to be established for its new shared entrance and lobby, PICU, and NICU. The design concept needed to be flexible enough to incorporate future buildouts on the upper floors.

our solution

The natural beauty found in the streams and mountains surrounding the site inspired the lobby, connector, PICU, and NICU. The swimming patterns and bright color of the native rainbow trout provided the primary inspiration for the new 2-story lobby. Through bold colored paint, graphic window film, and floor patterning the stream is emulated in the 18 bed PICU. A sense of calmness was established in the NICU through a softer use of color, the mountains and stream. For future upper floor buildouts, the “Big Sky” and its vast plains will be used to inform the design.

the result

The integration of graphics into the expansion provide wayfinding and positive distractions to patients, and guests. Children interact with the floor patterning in the connector and corridors of the pediatric inpatient unit and large-scale graphics provide identity to unit entry points. Both NICU and PICU have additional amenities such as a family lounge, showers, laundry facilities, and sleep sofas for parents staying on the unit with their children.