Today I learned of a new children’s hospital being constructed in Pittsburgh. According to the facility’s Web site, the hospital is being designed as a sustainable campus, with two of the buildings aiming for LEED Certification. Sustainable strategies included in the design include water-efficient landscaping, low-VOC materials and maximum daylight use.

Interestingly, I found listed among green design, technological sophistication and family-centered care: “quiet building.” According to the Web site, “Research shows that a quiet hospital environment enhances patient healing and satisfaction among health care providers. For this reason…we've designed one of the quietest hospitals in existence.”

The thought of including sound levels as a sustainable design element intrigue me. In other arenas, such as offices, for example, acoustics have always played an important role in employee satisfaction and productivity. The situation is a bit different, though, because children don’t recover from chemo treatments in an office. When designing a hospital, holistic approaches to design and patient care are all the rage, and it seems that acoustics should be a factor.

I don’t know of any other hospital that advertises its attention to sound levels like this one. While it’s not an inherently “green” aspect of design, it does seem to mesh with the sustainable philosophy of most health care facilities. Perhaps it should even be given consideration in the LEED for health care certification?