Children's Hospital tower colorful facade
The future Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital tower features east- and west-facing exterior walls covered with dichroic glass. This unique material produces shifting colors on the building’s exterior as the light changes throughout the day — an effect that visitors will view as being similar to a prism.
The array of colors is projected onto the glass wall by Dichroic glass. A relatively new product for usage in buildings, dichroic glass is actually a layer of color-shifting film material sandwiched between two glass panes. The glass is attached to the hospital exterior as fins, which captures light rays and project a changing array of colors on the hospital wall.
The colorful exterior to the Children’s Hospital tower is an effort to make the building especially attractive to its young patients, as well as to families and visitors.
Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital was founded in 1992 and is the only children’s hospital serving children from a four-county area that comprises nearly 25 percent of California’s land mass. The hospital admits more than 15,000 children annually, and it provides ambulatory care to another 160,000.
The construction effort is a part of Loma Linda University Health’s Vision 2020 – The Campaign for a Whole Tomorrow. New buildings for Loma Linda University Health’s adult hospital and Children’s Hospital will exceed California’s upcoming seismic requirements for hospitals.
This vignette is adapted from a blog by Dennis E. Park, which appears on the website www.docuvision2020.com.