Cooper Robertson has worked with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to plan and design a new 8.5-acre riverfront research campus across the Schuylkill River. Our master plan provides a flexible phasing framework for long-term development of up to two-million square feet of clinical research uses. Following the adoption of the plan and city approvals, Cooper Robertson is now leading the design of the site’s public realm, collaborating with building architects Ballinger and Pelli Clark Pelli.

The campus features four distinct public open spaces totaling 4.55 acres: South Street Plaza, Schuylkill Avenue Green, a Promenade over-looking Schuylkill River, and Bainbridge Place. The new open spaces will grace CHOP with a welcoming public face, buffer the scale of the new campus in relation to the rest of the community, and support the resiliency of the site and the neighborhood in the event of flooding. The design plans for the collection, conveyance, and retention of 85% of the stormwater that hits the site, through a combination of green roofs, rain gardens, and underground cisterns that are expressed as landscape features.