Virginia Commonwealth University Hospital | Ronald McDonald House Charities of Richmond | Richmond, Virginia

The new Ronald McDonald House, located conveniently in the Sky Lobby within the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU (CHoR), is designed to provide comfort, care, and a home-away-from-home for families with an ill or injured child receiving treatment at the hospital. With this expansion, RMHC Richmond increased their capacity to make a positive impact on even more families who need support.

Key Features of the New Ronald McDonald House:

Location: The new House is situated in the Sky Lobby of CHoR, close to their patient floors, ensuring that families can stay close to their children during their treatment journey.

State of the Art Facilities: The new House features modern amenities and accommodations, creating a warm and welcoming environment for families in need. There are 4 sleep rooms with attached restrooms, a lounge area, kitchen area, a playroom, laundry room and outdoor terrace.

Expanded Capacity: The new House allows RMHC Richmond to extend their services to more families, ensuring that they can focus on what matters most – supporting their child's recovery. While the facility can accommodate 4 caregivers for overnight stays, RMHC anticipates serving between 50 and 75 caregivers per day with their daily programming.

The common space included a special “sunshine” ceiling fixture, which came along with a difficult layout, procurement, and coordination. The piece was designed to be a focal point, encourage a positive atmosphere, and brighten up the space with a connection to nature. While this intricate design presented the team with challenges, the team found excellent solutions and this installation became the centerpiece that tied the space together.

While DPR completed the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU, the kitchen (a level immediately below) was in the final phase of being commissioned during the initial construction of Ronald McDonald House fit-out. DPR had very little time to complete the underslab work in time to reinstall the kitchen ceilings and utilities. This work required shutdowns and detailed planning to execute while not impacting the grand opening of the kitchen and cafeteria.

The team mitigated any rework in Sleep Room bathrooms by maintaining a heavy focus on layout during the beginning of the project, as well as continuous checks for ADA compliance and confirming framed openings against submittals. Likewise, the team conducted thorough in-wall quality control exercises and coordinated a ceiling drawing, to ensure all devices were installed in the correct locations and in-line with one another to deliver the best product possible. For the duration of the project, safety and quality remained a focus. The project was completed with zero recordable incidents and the team was diligent about education, safety presence, and following procedures.

Over the course of the project, DPR saved the client roughly $20,000 by suggesting a switch from a 8x8 TGP rated fire glass system to a full-lite HM door and 5x5’ borrowed light as a transom. These savings were then used to provide the client at opening with mics set-up needs and services (TV’s, shelving, etc) via our DPR craft employees.

• 3,200-sq.-ft fit-out project.
• Space consisted of four family rooms, commons areas, and play area.
• DPR Self Perform worked 3,415 hours.
• Included special design “sunshine” ceiling fixture.
• DPR saved client roughly $20,000 with material change suggestions.