Masonic Children's Hospital

The University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital recently underwent a 120 million dollar expansion that created a new presence on historic Riverside Avenue. Damon Farber Associates created an innovative series of spaces in the landscape, including playgrounds and intimate plaza areas to provide comfort and sanctuary to hospital users. The landscape harmoniously blends the built environment and site to establish an aesthetic setting and a functional facility. The landscape is inspired by the limestone terraces and naturalized plantings of the nearby Mississippi River bluffs. The public realm of adjacent Riverside Avenue transitions from a traditional streetscape into a series of stepped terraces with limestone walls that lead people toward the main entry plaza through a series of garden spaces. A children’s play area is incorporated within the landscape for use by patients and their families and both links and separates the public spaces within the building from the busy streetscape of Riverside Avenue.