It's got a unique look, but the newly opened Buerger Center for Advanced Pediatric Care at CHOP is more than just an interesting visual. It represents the latest in healthcare design thinking, where the goal is to reduce length of visits and ease stress on patients and families, FKP Architects chairman Diane Osan tells us.

Diane, who's also the firm's chief visionary officer, says that a building can make treatment and recovery easier in a number of ways, by offering relief from physical and cognitive impairments, reducing the stress of being ill, and inspiring hope. Snapped: Diane and Moises Weber, senior architect on the project, along with Tree Woman (we think that's what she calls herself, anyway) at the CHOP Buerger Center opening. Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects collaborated with FKP on the design.

Care providers at the 706k SF facility are clustered into “neighborhoods of care” to facilitate clinician and staff collaboration, and to simplify visits for patients and their families. The main lobby has a walking ramp with interactive displays that can double as a venue for physical therapy, and on the sixth floor is a 14k SF roof garden, the likes of which no other pediatric facility has. It provides horticultural therapy, which engages patients in plant-based activities. A second phase of the facility will be completed in 2017.