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Metropolis Editors, Natural Habitat, sustainability, sustainable architecture

METROPOLIS Introduces Natural Habitat, a Sustainable Homes Video Series

The series debuts with a tour of a tranquil upstate New York retreat designed with Passive House principles.

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Elkus Manfredi Architects was selected to provide the master plan for the 12-acre Children’s National Research & Innovation Campus, the architectural renovation of all of its historic buildings, as well as the 970-car parking structure. As visitors approach the main entrance of the research institute, they walk through Dogwood Plaza with landscaping by Mikyoung Kim Design.

September 4, 2024

Elkus Manfredi Transforms a Cold War Bunker into a Children’s Health Institute

The architects execute the master plan for Washington, D.C.’s defunct Walter Reed Army Medical Center into the Children’s National Research & Innovation Campus. 

By: Nigel F. Maynard

Photography: HALKIN MASON PHOTOGRAPHY

ESTABLISHED IN 1909, the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., was a storied institution that provided care to princes, presidents, and military personnel. But as wear and tear took its toll, the medical center lost its luster. Eventually a government commission voted to close the facility in 2011 (as part of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission process) and consolidate operations with the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

The closure wasn’t the end of the campus, though. Much of the 113-acre site is being redeveloped into a complex, mixed-use community of parks, residential housing, commercial, retail, and research institutions, with a more seamless connection to the adjacent neighborhoods. But a 12-acre section with four historic buildings and a parking garage was transferred to Children’s National Hospital, which hired Boston-based Elkus Manfredi Architects to execute a master plan and renovate the structures.

before image of a bunker like building

 “Children’s National set out to build a research ecosystem and clinical spaces to address some of the most challenging cases in pediatrics, which often come through the Rare Disease Institute and are studied at the Center for Genetic Medicine Research,” says Irene Thompson, executive director, real estate and capital planning, for Children’s National Hospital. “We also wanted the campus to be a welcome space for members of the community to be seen in our primary care clinic.”

While the buildings, ranging in architectural styles and spanning various eras, had become obsolete, “the existing architecture was really quite outstanding,” says David Manfredi, CEO and founding principal of the firm. The architects took a respectful approach to the design. The largest buildings in the collection—buildings 54 and 54x—received a significant renovation. “We basically took it down to the slabs,” Manfredi says. “Everything, all the infrastructure and mechanical systems, was removed and completely rebuilt.”

Building 54 was completed in 1953 and was essentially a windowless Brutalist bunker with 18-inch-thick walls, designed to contain highly sensitive government research and able to withstand a hydrogen bomb blast on the U.S. Capitol. Needless to say, bringing in light with new windows was a priority. Unfortunately, the preservation board limited the work to the east facade only. “We cut through the 18 inches of concrete to add windows,” Manfredi says, adding that “the proportion, even the shape, of the windows was informed by the checkerboard pattern of the board-form concrete exterior.” In all, the firm added about 6,000 square feet of new windows.

interior of a lobby with a white front desk and seating
The Children’s National Research Institute includes JLABS, a global network of open ecosystems that is an initiative of Johnson & Johnson Innovation.

Naturally, the architects updated all the systems and created ADA-accessible interiors. The material palette, to a certain extent, celebrates the history of the building. “We brought some of the board-form concrete inside, but wherever we could, we used wood to make it warm and added pops of color,” says Manfredi. “There’s certainly whimsy in some of the graphics in the building.”

The state-of-the-art mechanical systems significantly improved the project’s sustainable bona fides. “At the time we were designing it, which was 2019, the average national EUI [energy use intensity] for a lab building was 370,000 BTUs per square foot per year,” Manfredi explains. “Building 54 was designed to achieve an EUI of 108,000 BTUs per square foot per year.” A parking garage incorporates a 1.64-acre, 1.148-megawatt solar array that feeds power to the local community.

For Thompson, “we set out to create world-class health-care and research facilities, and we are delighted with how the buildings meet that mission.” 

interior image of a waiting room
The lobby of the Children’s National Research Institute Building pays tribute to the building’s original 1950s architecture and materials while modernizing the space with warm planks of light wood and playful geometric lamps. The building now houses 112,000 square feet of wet and dry laboratories, bioinformatics, a vivarium, and rare disease research laboratories.

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