Children’s Health and UT Southwestern Medical Center has selected a team of HKS and Perkins&Will to design a $5-billion pediatric health campus in Dallas. Set on more than 33 acres in the city's Southwestern Medical District, the campus with “patient-centric design that can meet the rapidly increasing need for more pediatric services from the most common to the most complex,” according to the design team.

“While both of our firms have designed children’s hospitals around the world, it’s incredible to work on one in your own backyard," says Rachel Knox, HKS principal-in-charge on the project. Components include a new 2-million-sq-ft children’s hospital. The total project will include 4.5 million sq ft of construction.

McCarthy Vaughn Partnership–a joint venture of McCarthy Building Companies and J.T. Vaughn Construction—will serve as construction manager. Construction is expected to begin in the second half of 2024. The hospital will “potentially open in the next six to seven years,” according to Children’s Health.

The new campus includes 552 beds with space for expansion, increased emergency department space and additional operating rooms. The Level I pediatric trauma center will include 90 ER exam rooms, 24 observation rooms and two helicopter pads.

A pedestrian bridge will be erected between the campus and neighboring Clements University Hospital. A new center will provide complex maternal and fetal health care, including fetal surgery capabilities, at the adjoining Clements University Hospital. A new outpatient clinic building will add 96 exam rooms to the existing 344 at Specialty Center Dallas.