Tower & Expansion

A Transformation Beyond Imagination

The countdown is on for Connecticut Children’s most ambitious expansion in our history. Our new, eight-story clinical tower, coming in 2025, will be more than an addition to our award-winning medical center in Hartford. It will mark a major milestone in our ever-evolving promise to innovate, offer new programs and technologies and provide continued excellent care that community members have come to know and love.

These efforts are so much more than bricks and mortar—they are about the innovation, new programs and care we will continue to provide as we work toward our vision of transforming children's health and well-being as one team.

What Will Our New Clinical Tower Offer?

Connecticut Children’s remains committed to being the only health system in Connecticut 100% dedicated to kids. Just as kids grow and adapt, so do we—to the needs of the diverse populations we serve from womb to college—and beyond. So anywhere between innovative technology and smiling faces, we’ve got everyone covered.

Connecticut Children’s will:

Deliver care through the latest technology like advanced cellular gene therapy, fetal surgery and biomedical science—in one location—all by pediatric experts excited to work with families.
Showcase a thoughtful interior and exterior design, reminiscent of healing and calming.
Enhance patient family-clinician relationships with an environment carefully designed by and for children and families.
Offer access to several specialties and departments, including the new Fetal Care Center, an expanded 50-bed Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), an Advanced Cellular and Gene Therapy Unit and an Acuity Adaptable Unit (AAU).

Transforming the Patient-Family Experience

At Connecticut Children’s, all we think about and talk about is children and their journey from the womb to adulthood. Every single person who works here is completely dedicated to the well-being of children and their families at all stages and ages. Every piece of equipment, every inch of the building, every playful and calming decoration—and the architecture itself—is designed exclusively to help families stay well and heal…both inside and out.

Our new patient-family experience will include:

All private inpatient areas, including in our NICU rooms and Fetal Care Center labor and delivery suites.
Private support spaces for families to unwind, recharge or have a moment alone.
Lactation and dedicated wellness rooms throughout the new space.
A gift shop in a newly built lobby, so visitors can help brighten their loved one’s stays.
A bright-and-cheery, yet calming energy-efficient design with windows that let in ample natural light.
Access to terraces and fresh air in designated inpatient units.
Kitchen and dining areas with a nutritious variety of meal offerings and a space large enough to accommodate all.

Transforming Pediatric Services & Care

Together we serve more than 131,000 children each year through our 30+ pediatric specialties in 40+ locations in Connecticut, Western Massachusetts and Eastern New York. We attract patients from 59 countries and 49 states. Our excellent outcomes, year after year, are true testaments to the care we offer families. Care beyond imagination.

Fetal and Neonatal Care

The Fetal Care Center led by a nationally recognized fetal surgeon and team of pediatric sub-specialists. The new Center will feature two dedicated operating rooms, six labor and delivery rooms and all the unique equipment to offer world-class care to developing babies with the most complex of fetal conditions.
A new, 50,000-square-foot Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), housed on two floors, and featuring 50 beds in private rooms. Our NICU will have additional space to perform complex procedures right at the baby’s bedside.

Emerging Care

An Advanced Cellular and Gene Therapy Unit, the next giant leap in attacking cancer in children as precisely as we can. With the new tower, we will offer the most sophisticated techniques like Car T-Cell therapy and gene treatments that target the DNA. Kids will have treatment close to home and their care integrated with Connecticut Children’s specialists they know and love.
An Acuity Adaptable Unit (AAU), an emerging care model built to support our most critically ill children. The 14-bed inpatient AAU will accommodate all levels of needs, right in one room, from medical-surgical to critical. That means care comes right to kids so families can focus on what matters most during a hospital stay—everyone’s comfort.

Kids' Ideas Count. We're Preserving Them for the Future.

It started in 1996 with a wish from longtime patient, Damon: a hospital that doesn't look, sound or smell like one. Damon's request inspired us to involve children in the design of what became Connecticut Children's Medical Center, and what will become the new, 8-story clinical tower in 2025.

Past meets present
As we continue to build, we have vowed to preserve some of these little pieces of history: shapes, colors and designs that make kids happy and comfortable during their stay.

This piece of steel is from our original "Banana" sculpture, a beloved wayfinding landmark at our medical center in Hartford. It was recently peeled from the building to make way for our new 8-story patient care tower. We're now using it to connect our past to our future.

"Does that mean there's a giant monkey?"
Not exactly. But superheroes have been known to scale the building from time to time…

Celebrate National Banana Day on April 17
Watch the video to learn more. #NationalBananaDay #CCTowerofHeroes #BridgingPastAndFuture

"What is the Banana and Why?"

This clipping from The Hartford Courant's 1996 newspaper article highlights the famous banana sculpture. "The 'banana' does have a purpose. Because it is so tall, it helps people find the medical center when driving on local roads and highways... But most important, the spike adds a little fun to the medical center... The spike makes children and their families 'scratch their heads and ask why.'" (Michael McAndrews, The Hartford Courant, 1996).

Some things come full circle.

For Debra, a veteran team member at Connecticut Children's, this rings true as she reflects on her journey from signing the first steel beam for the original hospital in 1996 to preparing to sign another beam for the new 8-story patient tower set to open in Fall of 2025. Read Debra's Story