Julie Burke used to dread taking her daughter Carley to doctor’s appointments. Carley, age 29, has autism and intellectual disability diagnoses, and is incredibly sensitive to busy surroundings. Typical medical waiting rooms — TVs on, children playing, people talking loudly, no privacy — tend to overwhelm and upset her, making an already stressful visit even more stress-inducing.
Things were different, however, during their first visit to the Honickman Center, Jefferson Health’s new, 19-story outpatient facility at 11th and Chestnut. Just inside the building’s entrance, grey-attired “ambassadors” offer gentle directions (and drawstring bags with noise-reduction headphones and fidgets). The facility’s textured walls are designed to be touched, and each floor has a different nature scene that offers a sense of peace and helps identify where you are.
Julie says her daughter was taken with Honickman’s undulating sculptures and the high-tech, no-wait check-in kiosks — so much so, Carley wanted to appear in a commercial for the new space. As for the dreaded waiting rooms: Cozy groupings of chairs and couches with high sides “are almost like cubbies,” Julie says. “This is just an easier place for her. The triggers aren’t there. Take those away, and you have a much easier time of it and a much better transition to getting care.”
Welcome to the healthcare facility of the future — a wholly sensory-friendly space that’s designed to soothe, not stress, everyone who enters. Jeff’s new center is not just for people on the spectrum, but with dramatically increasing diagnoses of spectrum disorders, spaces like Honickman are increasingly in demand. According to the Center’s designers and planners, we can’t not afford to create more of them.
The need for neurodiverse building
Almost one-fifth of Americans — about nearly 65 million people — self-identify as neurodivergent, according to polling firm yougov.com. Neurodivergent diagnoses include autism, which exists on a wide spectrum, and ADHD, attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder, most commonly diagnosed in children. Last year, Autism Speaks, one of the nation’s largest nonprofit advocacy organizations for the autistic population, reported that the number of adults and children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder increased by 175 percent over the past decade.
The reason the neurodivergent population is growing, despite what RFK Jr. will tell you, is largely because diagnostic methods have improved. People are receiving a diagnosis later in life. There’s more attention being paid to diagnosing historically under-diagnosed girls and women, while, according to a 2023 UCLA report, “nearly 80 percent of autistic females are (still) undiagnosed as of age 18.”
In the past decade, museums and other gathering spots have increasingly added and touted sensory-friendly events and hours. Ditto designated spaces, usually away from the noise of a crowd, as in Lincoln Financial Field, the first NFL stadium with a sensory room. In 2024, the Comcast Center unveiled its sensory-friendly space. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s forthcoming new in-patient building has already made plans for more private seating areas in its cafeteria, adjustable patient room lighting and high-back waiting room seating, much like that in Honickman.
“There was a genuine, authentic and non-performative effort to make this building inclusive. The place says: You belong here. This was designed with you and for you.” — Dr. Wendy Ross, Jefferson Center for Autism & Neurodiversity
(In 2023, the City of Philadelphia itself earned an official “sensory-friendly” classification after partnering with KultureCity, a national organization that “certifies” venues and helped train more than 16,000 city workers in best practices for neurodiverse residents.)
“Some builders respond to inclusion by putting in a sensory room and checking that box,” says Dr. Wendy Ross, Director of the Jefferson Center for Autism & Neurodiversity. This approach is entirely appropriate, say, for a sports arena. But Honickman was the city’s first major space where loud crowds are not a given to dedicate this amount of time and resources to overall neurodiverse design.
It’s only very recently, says Loukia Tsafoulia, co-director of Synesthetic Research and Design Lab and assistant professor at Jefferson’s College of Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), that architects and designers have begun to create entire sensory-friendly venues. “In the last five years, we see office buildings of any scale taking an interest in designing with sensitivity,” Tsafoulia says.
Not coincidentally, this April, Ross, Tsafoulia and Severino Alfonso, Tsafoulia’s co-director at the research and design lab and an assistant professor at CABE, co-hosted Jefferson’s fifth annual International Neurodiversity & the Built Environment symposium at Jefferson’s East Falls campus, where experts in all manner of architecture, medicine and advocacy came from as far as away Dublin, Ireland; Melbourne, Australia and Madrid, Spain to discuss collaborative inclusive design.
One presentation was about the Frankford Community Center, which is working with the Design Lab to make the interior and exterior more accessible. Sensory inclusive modifications to already existing spaces, Tsaifoulia points out, also have value. She tells colleges weighing accessible design updates against budgetary constraints, “If you make those spaces easier for all of your students, by putting some effort and maybe extra money, in the long term, you have less mental health crisis.”
“Take the triggers away, and you have a much easier time of it and a much better transition to getting care.” — Julie Burke, parent of a Jeff patient with autism
Accessible healthcare is healthcare for all
This makes the Honickman Center, which opened in August 2024 and has been in the works for the greater part of a decade, an early adopter. Ross says while planning the space took a lot of effort, it was a welcome endeavor — and ended up costing the same as a less accessible building.
“There was a genuine, authentic and non-performative effort to make this building inclusive,” says Ross. “The place says, You belong here. This was designed with you and for you.”
The trick, says Alfonso, is baking accessibility into the original plan — and being willing to collaborate and think outside the box.
“You’ll have to change some things that we’ve been doing the same way for a long time … It’s a process change that may be influencing the budget in the short term, but won’t make a big difference in the long term,” Alfonso says. “It’s a question of how users experience a space without being rejected by the space.”
In the end, the center ended up costing $762 million — about average for a brand-new, 300-exam room outpatient facility housing multiple medical specialities, including cardiology, gastroenterology and neurology. (Children’s Hospital’s 12-story outpatient Buerger Center opened in 2015 and cost $645 million.) What’s more, inclusive design has unforeseen benefits.
Edmund de Azevedo Pribitkin, chief physician executive of Jefferson Health and president of Jefferson Medical Group, says that’s one of the lessons of the circa-1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. Adjustments made for one population can and will benefit another. For example, “When we started constructing ramps, we were not only serving the person in the wheelchair but also the mother with the stroller and grandmother with a cane,” he says. “When we serve the person that’s more in need, we definitely serve everybody else.”
“When you’re looking at constructing a building that is neurodiverse-friendly, it can’t be a separate project. It can’t be just the chairs or the walls. It actually has to be built into the design of the building.” — Dr. Edmund deAzevedo Pribitkin, Jefferson Health and Jefferson Medical Group
Another example: Honickman’s Ambassador (greeters) program has proven so popular with patients, Jefferson is considering expanding it to other locations, Pibitikin says.
Honickman’s restrooms have extra-wide doors. Some are equipped with adult changing tables. The building offers multiple family rooms, small spaces for those who need privacy or quiet. Its rooftop garden offers a welcome escape for patients, their families, and healthcare workers. (The rooftop even includes a small space for service dogs to relieve themselves.)
Exam rooms are purposely streamlined, because counter clutter can upset some people. Each room has a screen that patients can use to teleconference caretakers or other physicians. When the visit is done, patients use the screen to check out, avoiding another line at the end of the visit, as some neurodivergent individuals struggle with transitions, so the fewer processes to go through, the better.
How’d they know to do all this? Research, sure, but designers also met with community members, patients, physicians and national groups serving neurodiverse populations. Once they had their ideas in place, Jefferson professors and design students collaborated with healthcare students on finishing touches.
All in all, says Pribitkin, hospital leaders saw an opportunity “to look at all aspects of patient care and build it into the planning. When you’re looking at constructing a building that is neurodiverse-friendly, it can’t be a separate project. It can’t be just the chairs or the walls. It actually has to be built into the design of the building.”
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