The Legos arrived Tuesday.
The fully assembled "Star Wars" characters were placed in spotlighted recesses in the walls of the new hospital building.
These are just two of the countless ways the Children's Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University will try to make sick and injured children feel at home.
"The children are the center of this project," said Tracy Lowerre, clinical nurse liaison for the hospital.
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The $400 million, 16-story children's tower is almost ready to go. A ribbon-cutting will be held Tuesday, and patients will move in April 30.
Located on East Marshall Street between North 10th and North 11th streets, the tower will expand patient capacity and hospital staff. It also will consolidate the hospital's pediatric services to one location.
Now, the quality of the building will match the level of care, hospital leaders said.
It has been a long time coming. VCU first announced plans to build a standalone inpatient children's hospital in 2005, but ultimately the health system backed out. It tried and failed again in 2013.
It is the area's only freestanding children's hospital, though the area's other two health systems, Bon Secours and HCA Healthcare, also offer pediatric services.
Local leaders once considered building an independent children's hospital that consolidated the care from the local health systems. VCU and Bon Secours considered collaborating, but they eventually pulled out.
The current project was announced in 2018, and VCU broke ground in 2019. The tower is connected to the outpatient pavilion, which opened in 2016 and faces East Broad Street.
Buildings to house 900 full-time staffers
The Children's Hospital Foundation raised $67 million, but fell short of its goal of $100 million. DPR Construction served as construction manager, HKS Architects designed the building, and JLL provided project management.
With 72 inpatient beds, including 24 in the intensive care unit, the hospital expands from the current 58. The new building will feature six operating rooms, 21 emergency department rooms and hundreds of parking spots. It also contains four empty floors for expansion.
The patient rooms, at 330 square feet, are large and include sofa beds for family members.
The neonatal intensive care unit, which treats newborn babies, will stay in the main hospital near the labor and delivery department. It has not been decided what will happen to the space the children's hospital is vacating.
The children's tower will expand the staff, too. VCU opened 276 new positions, including valet, security, doctors and nurses. It has filled 152 of them, which vice president of operations Jeniece Roane said is impressive, given how hard it has become to find health care workers.
Roughly 900 full-time equivalent staffers will work in the inpatient and outpatient buildings.
Long-term residents at the hospital's Brook Road campus will remain there.
Each floor features an animal, color
The hospital is filled from top to bottom with items that appeal to children. Near the entrance is a giant mural of the James River and its iconic railroad bridge. Each floor is designated with a different animal and color. The 12th floor is green adorned with turtles. The turquoise 11th floor features sea otters.
When planning the building, hospital staff asked patient families what they would like to see in a new facility. The families asked for private rooms to make phone calls. They asked for kitchenettes — some parents whose children were not allowed to eat would step into the bathroom to consume a power bar.
The hospital added a teen lounge and a family gym with a treadmill and elliptical.
The building addresses more specialized needs, too. Rooms for patients with mental health issues have doors that open both ways so patients cannot barricade themselves inside. They feature garage-style doors to lock away expensive equipment.
About 250 pieces of art adorn the walls, some of it original and most of it donated.
On the doors of the storage closets are pictures of animals and fun facts, such as: Otters wash themselves after every meal; butterflies use their feet to taste their food.
The building contains performance space for music, ballet, or arts and crafts. Hospital staff have the ability to broadcast performances to the rooms of patients too sick to attend. At the building's apex, there is a three-story atrium with large windows and a view of the river.
"We're thinking of everything we can to make it as easy as we can for our families," Lowerre said.