AUSTIN, September 18, 2007 – TBG Partners, Texas’ largest landscape architecture and planning firm, is providing site planning, sustainable design and landscape architectural services for the new 32-acre Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas, located at the Robert Mueller Municipal Airport Redevelopment site. Dell Children’s is scheduled to become the world’s first Platinum hospital, the highest certification a project can receive under the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) program sponsored by the U.S. Green Building Council.

TBG Partners’ landscape design for the hospital creates a playful healing environment for children. Utilizing recycled materials including composite wood, recycled glass and concrete with high ash content, the project elements include a three-acre, healing garden articulated by passive and active spaces that feature a multimedia movie plaza, labyrinth, human sundial, butterfly garden, a floating stone fountain and reflecting pond. Within the central courtyard, a three-story water way cascades down a wall of granite into a serpentine stream that flows over a rock waterfall into a reflecting pool.

“We designed various courtyard environments to reflect the biodiversity of Central Texas by incorporating six ecoregions, each corresponding to a distinct area of the hospital’s 46-county service region,” said Brian Ott, LEED Accredited Professional and principal at TBG Partners. “This helps to connect patients and family members with the familiar environments they grew up around. Since the installments, Dell Children’s has received widespread acclaim for combining cutting-edge medical technology with art and green building design to create a cohesive healing environment.”

The hospital opened on June 30, 2007, as the newest member of the Seton Family of Hospitals. This $200 million, “high tech, high touch” facility spans nearly one-half million square feet, three times as big as Children’s Hospital of Austin. That additional space supports increased capacity in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and the Emergency Department, a comprehensive Pediatric Trauma program, a Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Center and a host of other capabilities.

About TBG Partners
As Texas’ largest landscape architecture and planning firm, TBG designs mixed-use and residential communities, corporate campuses, civic buildings, hotels, resorts, healthcare and educational facilities, city parks and historic sites. With 26 LEED Accredited Professionals on staff, TBG works to incorporate sustainable design principles into each project. Established in 1987, TBG is now staffed by over 130 professionals in Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. For more information, please visit www.tbg-inc.com.