1. The new main entrance to Dayton Children's features a large covered traffic circle and is located in its original place next to the parking garage along Valley Street. A large bronze sculpture of children with pinwheels and their dog greets visitors the new entrance.
“We have this grand entrance and it made it whimsical. The children have pinwheels that they’re holding, very similar to our new logo. There’s no doubt it’s a children’s hospital,” said Cindy Burger, Vice President, Patient and Family Experience.
2. The new patient tower is now a landmark along State Route 4 in Dayton and stands as tall as the Statue of Liberty, which the hospital points out in videos throughout the campus. The eight-story modern design was started in 2014 and added 260,000 square feet of patient care space.
SEE MORE: Exclusive look into the new Dayton Children’s Hospital
3. The new patient rooms are all private and larger than the existing rooms. Dayton Children's president Deborah Feldman said: "When you consider in our environment very few parents let their children spend the night in a hospital by themselves, you're really talking about four people sharing a room." Caring for patients can become challenging for doctors and nurses when mom, dad and a sibling or two are all a patient's room at the same time she said.
4. Outdoor rooftop play areas are a new feature at Dayton Children's. Large skylight windows form cones that poke up from the floor like giant crystals. A synthetic rubber floor patterned with clouds and airplanes weaves around the skylights, and colorful mosaic tile artwork covers one wall of the play areas.
“Half of it is for our cancer kids because they may not be able to be around other children because of their treatment and then half of it can be used by all the other children at the hospital so they can get outside and enjoy some play space and fresh air,” Burger said.
"The theme of 'things that fly' is throughout the hospital in a whimsical, through a child's eyes way," Feldman said. "We wanted to take out of that aviation history the sense that anything is possible, we believe in ourselves, and we believe in what we can do."
Birds, insects, balloons, airplanes and even a super hero flying gerbil painting adorn the entire hospital.
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