UnityPoint Health Blank Children's STAR and Developmental Center

INVISION Architecture

Recognitions: AIA Iowa 2020 Design Award

Project Description

The Developmental Center offers help to children who have been victims of abuse, exposed to drugs, experience in the foster care system as well as diagnosis and treatment for children with developmental, behavioral, and physical conditions. Designing a space that makes children feel comfortable and welcome while providing a safe environment was key to the overall design strategy. Creating a dynamic façade that appealed to children and made them feel excited to enter was a critical component to the design strategy. The exterior of the building utilizes interference stainless steel panels to provide a sophisticated ever-changing colorful exterior. The panels are coated with a special clear oxide layer that is created through an electrochemical process, which acts like a prism bending the sunlight into a spectrum of color. This illusion means the metal is an extremely durable product that does not age/fade. A cant in the front façade emphasizes the metal panel’s reaction to natural light and assists with the color differences generated from its dependence on natural elements like light, weather, and observation angle. This cant also directs the user towards the main entry, which incorporates custom perforated interference metal panels with a pattern that plays off the Center’s “star” logo. Careful planning, detailing, and installation of these interference metal panels provides the Children’s Developmental Center with an exciting, comfortable, and welcoming environment that promotes children’s healing through the refined use of color and form.