REPEAT CLIENT: OUR LADY OF THE LAKE LOCATION: BATON ROUGE, LA
Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital in Baton Rouge, Louisiana is the network’s newest campus serving children across the entire state. Greenleaf Architect’s contributions to the project were the design of 3 playhouses as a part of a playground to serve the children and patients staying or visiting the hospital. The structures needed to be fun, whacky, and playful to encourage children to spend time outside and enjoy being away from their rooms. This area needed to be a place for them to escape, and get away from the normal atmosphere of a hospital. Encouraging the utilization of this area as a playground for the patients of this hospital was of the utmost importance and needed to be evident in the final design of these structures.
The playhouses were designed with a light, wonky and skewed look to mimic those that you find in a children’s book or cartoon. They are situated along a winding and irregular wooden path, hidden amongst landscaping and turfed berms. Designed with different styles, materials, and colors, each playhouse provides a unique look and allows the children to have a distinctive experience while playing. At the same time, their asymmetrical and nonuniform designs tie the structures together and provoke a lighthearted impression of the playground in its entirety. As architects, it was a rewarding exercise and lots of fun to bring out our inner child in these designs and provide something that made kids laugh, smile and play.
