Project Category – Remodel/Renovation (completed October 1999)

Facility Contact – Joseph G. Alcure, Jr., Director, Construction Services Memorial West, (954) 433-7184

Firm – MGE Architects, (305) 444-0413

Design Team – Jose L. Estevez, AIA, Senior Vice-President; Rolando Conesa, AIA, Vice-President; Maggie Binimelis, Director of Interior Design; Katherine A. Corey, Interior Designer (MGE Architects); Christopher Freyer, Principal (Smith Seckman Reid, Inc.)

Patient/Bed Capacity – 22 beds

Total Area (sq. ft.) – 15,000

Total Land Area (acres) – N/A

Total Cost – $5,000,000

The project was a conversion of an existing outdated and inefficient Pediatric-Look Patient Wing to a 15,000-sq.-ft., 22-bed, state-of-the-art Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (ICU), providing comprehensive treatment and care to children, parents and siblings.

The new Pediatric ICU is staff-efficient and, most importantly, child-appropriate. It features a central core of nursing support shared by a potential of four nursing work area pods. The patient rooms are designed to allow doctors and nurses to work at the patient’s bedside, and the central nursing work core is designed for flexibility, to adapt to high and low patient census. Sections can shut down and fully operate within the smaller pods. This flexibility was a key design element.

Each pod has monitoring capability, both visual and computerized, with clear sight-lines to all patient rooms. To ensure this, nursing pods were designed with computers placed within the desktop, double glass doors on patient rooms and two strategically placed nurses’ stations.

Family-friendly amenities, such as a family pantry and overnight sleepers in the rooms, are a part of the concept of family involvement in the patient’s healing process.

Finishes were selected for high durability. The Joe DiMaggio baseball theme takes a tropical twist, with floor patterns mimicking beach themes. Cheerful jewel tones accent the unit with soft-curved wall accents, and custom borders highlight the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital logo.


All patient rooms have power column, emergency gas and life-saving equipment within one room. Nursing stations are designed so that smaller, less critical patients can access the nursing staff 24 hours a day. This was achieved by extending countertop surfaces from the main nurses’ station.

The theme accommodates the “child-friendly atmosphere,” including a baseball diamond at the main nurses’ station; a pond at the secondary nurses’s station; first, second and third base blocks at every entry door; and a wavy “sidewalk.” There are five room color schemes: chartreuse, periwinkle, pinks, yellows and shades of aqua; these same colors spill out into the corridors. Custom-designed wall borders adorn each patient room, and mailboxes at every patient’s door simulate being in one’s own house.