Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center expanded its College Hill campus. The new structure is a five-story behavioral health facility with private inpatient + residential rooms so that families can stay with patients. The new facility has spaces for group, speech, occupational + recreational therapy, and offer expanded services for patients with neurodevelopment disorders.

Schaefer designed the main concrete structure and the ancillary steel-framed canopies + lobby areas. The team utilized long span (40-60 ft) post-tensioned girders in combination with wide-module pan joists to support floor framing + minimize columns in residential wings + first-floor gymnasium. This approach will provide flexibility for future programming.

This new building ultimately replaced the original inpatient building on the College Hill campus. Schaefer designed a residential addition to the original building in 2015 which will remain and connect to the new construction. The new building is 68% larger than the original allowing the Cincinnati Children’s team to provide necessary improvements + implement new approaches to behavioral health.