In the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, children who need to visit the hospital are in for a surprise. The 42,000 square foot Children's Center at Valley Baptist in Harlingen, TX was created to intrigue and delight the imaginations of children. The integrated design of this facility combines murals, flooring and laminates to produce a wonderland fantasy that eases a child's stress and facilitates the healing process.
As a child enters this complex, they are greeted by a mural, hand-painted by a local artist, that creates a wonderful fun-filled environment. Local landmarks are woven into the mural to make it location appropriate. As they walk across the floor which resembles a stone pathway through a grassy area, they soon meet many wonders: nursing stations in the shape of a castle, Noah's Ark, and a forest! There is even a laminate train carrying animal characters.
A child will be directed to a room, but never given a number. "We didn't want the rooms to become room numbers any more than we wanted the children to become patient numbers," says Lew Vassberg, president and interior design principal of Valley Designs. Instead, children are directed to a "slipper room" (or one of the other iconographs--including trains, motorcycles, and swords) and can follow the slipper or other image on the floor to reach their room. Each of the 48 private rooms and 14 pediatric intensive care rooms also received special design treatments. There are castle rooms, train rooms, Noah's Ark rooms, crown rooms, and others. These rooms have been designed to activate the imagination of a child while helping them feel comfortable and safe.
Rainbow Creations Inc was honored to collaborate in the creation of this special place.
For the Valley Baptist Children's Center project, Greg Williams with Kenmark Inc. called on RCI to handle designer Vassberg’s opportunity. She required three mural designs and provided us with her concepts.
We developed this project in stages. The first phase was to provide rough sketches of our mural ideas. With the approval of the roughs, we proceeded to finish the artwork in one quarter scale. Upon approval of the paintings, they were scanned and digitally printed as murals. Each mural was enlarged exactly the size needed by the respective space.
Because Rainbow Creations specializes in customs, we are able to assess and meet the needs of creative projects like this one. You can count on us for imaginative wallcovering solutions.
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