Parkland Hospital System

Parkland Hospital Parking Garage and Site

As the first piece of the 4 million sf campus for Parkland Health System’s replacement hospital for Dallas County, the 9-level 2000-car garage establish the tone for the entire project. The challenge is having creative foresight; how to bring out the “Park” in Parkland while visually tying the garage to the hospital interior. The focusEGD (Dallas)/Mitchell Associates (Delaware) team achieved both objectives by using colors from the interior palette and creating abstract patterns inspired by nature.  

Critical to the site wayfinding and sign system was the readability, strategic location and scale of each sign. Those indicators, the cantilevered, architectural elements and a desire for timelessness inspired the typographic standards, which took on a clean, International Style. A Special Purpose Sign District was written allowing for up-sized directional monuments that complement the 17-story building. Especially important was to create a large red beacon to the Emergency entrance. 

Replacement Hospital Wayfinding and Donor Recognition

This 2.5 million square foot, 832-bed replacement hospital is designed to meet Dallas’ growing multi-lingual populations. Incorporating aspects of natural lighting, healing gardens, and nature themes, the building interior and the sign system express the “Park” in Parkland and promote a healing environment. Evidence based design principals, interactive digital directories, color-coding for vertical wayfinding, iconography, and strategic messaging enhance the communication to a diverse population.  

Because of its historical past and strong ties to the community, historic features such as the JFK Memorial and artifacts were relocated to the new building’s lobby along with a history wall telling of Parkland’s beginnings, and a digital display of the new Parkland being built. Donor recognition displays include a large capital campaign, community integration, employee recognition and a building facade full of county community donors applied to the glass.

Anderson Clinic

The outpatient extension of the hospital was built on the campus and named for the long-servicing President and CEO, Ron J. Anderson, M.D. While the sign design remained the same, the additional need was for digital signage to help patients find their way to rotating clinics on multiple floors.