{"id":332413,"date":"2025-12-05T17:26:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T17:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/332413\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T17:26:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T17:26:18","slug":"connecticut-childrens-hospital-opens-landmark-326m-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/332413\/","title":{"rendered":"Connecticut Children’s hospital opens landmark $326M expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly three years after construction began<\/a>, Connecticut Children\u2019s<\/a> Thursday marked the opening of a $326 million clinical tower that will double the size of its flagship Hartford campus \u2014 the largest expansion in its 29-year history \u2014 allowing the hospital to push deeply into fetal care from its traditional pediatric care roots.<\/p>\n

The eight-story tower houses a fetal care center \u2014 already launched by the hospital \u2014 that will provide care to expectant mothers whose babies may need surgery before they are born. The center includes six private rooms, a private elevator for the mothers, and a massive operating room that can accommodate up to 40 clinicians at one time because both the unborn child and the mother are involved in the surgery.<\/p>\n

In addition, there are two floors with 50 private, neonatal intensive care rooms, giving parents privacy and place to sleep and shower with their newborns nearby.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis tower is the future of pediatric health care in motion,\u201d Bob Duncan, the hospital\u2019s chief operating officer, said during a grand opening ceremony. \u201cEvery single space, every detail was designed with the child and their families in mind. From the light-filled, beautiful atrium to \u2018flying submarine\u2019 elevators where anxiety gives way to imagination. This is a place where healing feels less intimidating and more hopeful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duncan said the hospital is now equipped to provide some of the most advanced health care in the country.<\/p>\n

\"ConnecticutConnecticut Children\u2019s new clinical tower is seen during the ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday. (Aaron Flaum\/Hartford Courant)<\/p>\n

Each of the upper floors of the 195,000-square-foot tower has distinctive features such as outdoor terraces and indoor lounges where families of babies in the NICU can gather, share experiences and support each other. A skywalk across Washington Street connects to a $72 million, 900-space parking garage, an amenity that is expected to open Jan. 12. An outdoor garden off the fifth floor includes a Zen garden for meditation.<\/p>\n

The project was overseen by James E. Shmerling, the hospital\u2019s president and chief executive, who is retiring at the end of the year. His successor, Shannon Sullivan, who most recently held the post of president and chief operating officer at Women & Infants Hospital in Providence, RI, will assume the post<\/a> Jan. 12.<\/p>\n

Sullivan, who grew up in Longmeadow, MA, attended Thursday\u2019s ceremonies and said, after the ceremony: \u201cIt\u2019s an incredible building but more importantly, it\u2019s incredible team members, the ones I\u2019ve met who are in the building taking care of patients. We\u2019re only as good as the people. So, I\u2019m really excited to come here right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HartfordHartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam talks with Shannon Sullivan, Connecticut Children\u2019s incoming president and CEO, during the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Clinical Tower Thursday. (Aaron Flaum\/Hartford Courant)<\/p>\n

Sullivan said, \u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of very positive, forward momentum, but there\u2019s a lot of challenges as it relates right now to what is happening in health care across the entire country. So we\u2019ve got to take those head on, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to plan to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among those challenges are expected, wide-ranging cuts to Medicaid, Sullivan said, and that has implications for child health care.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to think creatively about how we provide that care in lots of different ways,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be committed, doing it no matter how creatively we do it. We\u2019re going to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it came time to cut a ceremonial ribbon, scissors were handed to Gov. Ned Lamont<\/a>, Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam<\/a> and other officials but one also went to 6-year-old Teimo Costa Jr.<\/p>\n

\"DiannaDianna Pategas, Connecticut Children\u2019s Foundation vice president of stewardship and donor relations, gives guests a tour of the fetal care operating room in the new Connecticut Children\u2019s clinical tower Thursday. The operating room can accomodate up to 40 clinicians. (Aaron Flaum\/Hartford Courant)<\/p>\n

Teimo Costa Jr., nicknamed \u201cJunior,\u201d was a patient in the hospital\u2019s NICU unit, which, until now, was at neighboring Hartford Hospital. Junior was born at 27 weeks, weighing just 2 pounds, 7 ounces. He required, among other procedures, surgery to correct a condition that prevented his heart from pumping as it should. Junior was in the NICU for 100 days.<\/p>\n

His parents, Jesse and Teimo Costa of West Hartford and sister, Alessia, 9, also stood by as the cut ribbon floated to the ground.<\/p>\n

Jesse Costa said the private NICU rooms will be \u201clife-changing for parents, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get to be alone with your family during difficult or emotional moments,\u201d Jesse Teimo said. \u201cWe shared a quad, and while I was concerned about my own child, I had to experience other parents\u2019 moments as well, which can be traumatizing. Just giving parents a little bit of sense of normalcy. Just having your own private bathroom in there, your sink. They now have a couch in there for an overnight option. We didn\u2019t have that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ArtworkArtwork by local artist Tracy MacLauchlan decorates the walls of the new Connecticut Children\u2019s clinical tower. (Aaron Flaum\/Hartford Courant)<\/p>\n

The expansion is a key component in the evolution of the city\u2019s Washington Street corridor near the contiguous campuses of Connecticut Children\u2019s and Hartford Hospital. The area is seen as a health and innovation district, one of 10 projects that could transform Hartford by 2035, the city\u2019s 400th anniversary.<\/p>\n

The expansion also has the potential to raise Connecticut Children\u2019s profile both regionally and nationally \u2014 and create hundreds of jobs.<\/p>\n

The hospital is already drawing increased attention.<\/p>\n

In October, entrepreneur and philanthropist Tom Golisano announced that Connecticut Children\u2019s will join the newly formed Golisano Children\u2019s Alliance<\/a> with a $50 million investment in the Hartford center.<\/p>\n

Golisano, the founder of Paychex, Inc., has donated more than a $1 billion to organizations that support health care, education and inclusion. Connecticut Children\u2019s is one of 10 hospitals to join the Golisano Children\u2019s Alliance, which will operate collaboratively but independently.<\/p>\n

While the surrounding Frog Hollow neighborhood supported the development of the tower, the plans for the parking garage were controversial<\/a> and required negotiations with Connecticut Children\u2019s. The hospital agreed to relocate rather than demolish four structures \u2014 three of them historic \u2014 \u00a0to make way for the parking garage. J Restaurant Bar also closed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The hospital also agreed to plant 100 trees, a number matched by the city.<\/p>\n

The relocated buildings saved nine apartments. The hospital also pledged to construct a new mixed-use building across from the hospital to add more housing to the neighborhood. Right now, the property, a former car wash, is being used as a staging area for temporary construction offices and equipment.<\/p>\n

\"GuestsGuests gather in Emily\u2019s Atrium during the grand opening for the new Connecticut Children\u2019s clinical tower on Thursday. (Aaron Flaum\/Hartford Courant)<\/p>\n

Duncan, the hospital\u2019s COO, said in an interview that the staging area will remain for another year because more construction is taking place in the lower levels of the hospital that aren\u2019t visited by the public. Time also will be needed to make changes to the exterior of the original hospital to match the new tower so the structure will appear as though it is one building.<\/p>\n

The mixed-use project would likely start unfolding after that, Duncan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have not taken that off the table,\u201d Duncan said.<\/p>\n

Reporting by Kaitlin McCallum is included in this story.<\/p>\n

Kenneth R. Gosselin can be reached at kgosselin@courant.com.<\/p>\n

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