Studies show that children in hospitals use up to 22 percent less pain medication and have seven percent shorter hospital stays when exposed to daylight and nature. Leaning into and applying this research, HGOR assisted Children's Healthcare of Atlanta to masterfully plan and design their new campus at the northeastern corner of North Druid Hills Road and I-85.

Set to deliver in 2025, the new campus will span 70-acres in Brookhaven, Ga. This new state-of-the-art facility uses Georgia's natural palette to assist the needs of CHOA patients, families and staff and will include gathering spaces, planted areas, water features, two miles of walking paths and a variety of gardens providing spaces to recharge, socialize, eat and relax. In addition to the interactive elements, HGOR conceptualized a functioning landscape which helps to filter storm water, improve the surrounding landscape and increase biodiversity throughout the campus.

"Given the research and the hospital's goal to serve children, we knew this design needed to incorporate nature as much as possible while also considering how the staff would be most efficient," said HGOR principal Bob Hughes. "After understanding the effects of the natural environment on the healing process, we also found that doctors work quicker and more efficiently moving vertically rather than down long hallways. To complement the research, our goal was to place the hospital in a landscape, not on a landscape to create a compact footprint which preserves 20-acres of the site as a parklike campus."