Designers at Their Desk: Marianne Graffam

Marianne Graffam, seen here in her own workspace in the studio, is the leader of EskewDumezRipple’s healthcare team.

Designers at Their Desk is a monthly feature showcasing a conversation with one of our staff, their unique outlook on architecture and design, hobbies, interests, and their current projects.

Marianne Graffam has built a remarkable career for herself in the field of healthcare architecture and design. With 15 years of focused experience on inpatient and outpatient facilities, Marianne leads EskewDumezRipple’s healthcare studio with an extraordinary amount of dedication. Her current work with Children’s Hospital of New Orleans, however, is a project unlike anything else she has ever managed in healthcare design.

Recently covered by Nola.com, Walker’s Imaginarium is an experiment in a brand of playfulness that is not often seen in healthcare projects. “The idea of providing a space for children to help improve the experience for kids in the hospital came from John Nickens’s relationship with Walker Beery and his family while Walker was being treated at the Children’s Hospital with a very rare and aggressive pediatric brain cancer,” Marianne tells us. During his treatment, Walker was moved by the generosity of a fellow patient who gifted him a toy. Walker was inspired by this experience to start a nonprofit called “Kids Join the Fight,” and it’s this organization that Children’s Hospital is partnering with to create Walker’s Imaginarium.

“What’s unique about this particular project,” Marianne says, “is that we’re creating a space for play that can be used by both inpatients and able-bodied kids.” The Imaginarium, as she explains it, is just as much for the friends and family of the patients as it is for the patients themselves, where everyone can retreat for some respite from illness. “We’re designing the space to be playful, fun, and use universal design,” says Marianne. “Any person with any ability will be able to experience the space.”

Marianne admits that this is an exceptional project relative to her extensive resume in healthcare design, but she is glad for the experience. “In this world now we understand that emotional health is important,” she says. “I like the fact that Children’s Hospital is putting a focus on how care isn’t just medicine. Care is also how you feel. This is, by far, the most unique project where how people feel emotionally is the top priority.”

A rendering of Walker’s Imaginarium.

The design team also faced challenges unique to the Imaginarium. “They said, ‘There’s no limit. Give us all you’ve got. What can it be?’” Marianne says. “The challenge was having no limits on what we could potentially do … The turnaround time to get ideas on paper, to present, was less than a month. It was nice to get Mark Ripple, Kristin, Sam, and the rest of the studio involved and fully engaged to try to come up with something magical.”

“Care isn't just medicine. Care is also how you feel.”

But magic is a difficult thing to capture, even in a no-restrictions scenario. To conjure up the proper insights necessary for a project of this nature, the design team embraced the city of New Orleans and their own childlike wonder. “Knowing that the kids that are in the hospital can’t get to explore the zoo, or the aquarium, or experience Mardi Gras,” Marianne says, “John Nickens wants to make sure that this is a space where those experiences can come to them.”

“We were able to highlight the quintessential New Orleans aspects and bring it in at a scale where other people could enjoy it as well,” Marianne continues. She also cites another major, local project that the team visited for inspiration. “We went to the Children’s Museum to actually experience it firsthand to make sure we are understanding the scale and size, and making sure that we’re employing whimsy into the design.”

The project team hopes to break ground on Walker’s Imaginarium by the end of 2023. Marianne has been plenty busy between this and many other projects, not to mention her recent ACHA certification (an accreditation received by only 10 individuals in the state of Louisiana this year). But at the very least, the Imaginarium and Children’s Hospital have given Marianne a good excuse to embrace the fun and magical aspects of her work.