Bluebird Kids Health

We reimagined pediatrics care from the moment kids walk in the door.

Bluebird Kids Health is building something uncommon: a pediatric practice that approaches the design of their clinics as a tool for better care outcomes. The brief was clear: let’s design a clinic that feels nothing like a Medicaid office. Welcoming and professional, a space that earns trust before the exam begins, and design standards to replicate as the practice grows.

The centerpiece of the lobby design is a commissioned wall mural. When kids and their guardians check in, they are given a postcard legend of items to find in the artwork. This activity focuses children’s attention on a game the moment they walk in, ensuring worries about seeing a doctor in a new place never take hold. The mural also does something subtler: it tells a child that this place is designed for them.

The Bluebird Kids Health prototype demonstrates that in healthcare environments, every design decision is a clinical decision. The choice of a stepped bench over a flat one. The decision to put a made-for-kids mural in the lobby instead of a TV. These are not aesthetic choices — they are cumulative interventions that produce an environment allowing children and families to arrive as their best selves.

Moreover, everything is built at the right scale. The custom lobby bench system includes low stepped platforms so young children can climb up independently, a small design act that gives kids agency. The reception counter has a lowered section that lets staff crouch naturally into a child’s line of sight. The hexagonal poufs scattered throughout the lobby can be moved and rearranged by kids who need to. Every material is chosen to feel welcoming and durable; Manitoba Maple laminate. Wilsonart Relaxed White solid surface. Benjamin Moore White Dove walls softened by Summer Shower blue.

Each of the nine exam rooms, including three family rooms sized for larger groups, was designed to have clinical equipment accessible to providers and invisible to visiting patients; a Garden Cucumber accent wall. The teal-upholstered exam bench built into custom millwork has integrated storage beneath. The brand’s illustrated bluebirds are found mid-flight on the wall inspiring children to follow along the dotted path.

Bluebird Kids Health planned its practice around value-based care, and we designed a space with them to embody it. Multiple locations are now open and seeing happy patients return as their families grow, proves our design language can travel to new regions while holding warmth, precision, and its sense of play across every new site.