Karlsberger provides a full spectrum of professional planning and design services. The firm has been in continuous operation since its establishment by Louis Karlsberger in 1928. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, the firm also has an office in New York City.
The firm’s services include master planning, site and facility assessment, architecture, interior design, wayfinding, landscape architecture, and visualization. The Karlsberger project portfolio includes work in the following industries – healthcare, science and technology, education, and civic.
Karlsberger is a nationally-recognized leader in healthcare planning and design. Whether they are planners seeking out new methods by which they can perfect the functionality and efficiency of a building or designers who feel something stir inside of them each time they realize the true power of a great design, the staff at Karlsberger is dedicated to enhancing the healing environment. From an operationally-driven approach, the firm involves the patients, family, and staff of the hospital throughout the process in order to create a facility which will support the healing of the mind, body, and spirit.
The firm is one of the first architectural affiliates and an official research partner of The Center for Health Design®. The research conducted by the firm’s staff has allowed Karlsberger to develop a design process that infuses projects with current and broad-based evidence, not only from the firm’s portfolio, but from leading healthcare institutions across the country. As “thought leaders,” Karlsberger shares research with peers and colleagues through lectures, publications and a collection of “Knowledge Papers” on industry trends and benchmarks.
Karlsberger planned and designed the new Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas, the first hospital in the world to achieve Platinum-level LEED® certification. Completed in July 2007, the 473,000 sf hospital is the first redevelopment project on the former Austin municipal airport site.
Since 1975, Karlsberger has provided planning and design services for many of the top-rated children’s hospitals across the United States and Canada. The firm is actively involved with and is a founding Platinum patron sponsor of the National Association for Children’s Hospitals and Related Institutions (NACHRI).
Karlsberger understands not only the fundamental differences, but also the subtle ones, in the successful design of a healing environment for a children’s versus an adult hospital. First and foremost, children are not just small adults.
Children’s healthcare facilities are very special places. They must support the physical and mental well being of children ranging from neonates to young adults, while fulfilling their need to explore, experiment, learn, interact, and play. At the same time, these healthcare facilities must be functional and efficient for the medical and administrative staffs, and supportive of the patients’ families. Karlsberger has successfully incorporated these specific needs and goals into contemporary and creative design solutions.
Karlsberger is a recognized leader in the programming, planning, design, and architecture of contemporary, innovative laboratory environments. The firm’s experience includes laboratory projects for healthcare, academic teaching/research, biomedical, public health, forensic and specialty laboratory clients. Karlsberger has extensive experience with new construction, renovation and expansion projects both in the private and public sector.
The firm is committed to the laboratory services industry and has a creative staff of design professionals who have dedicated their entire careers to the planning and design of specialty and complex laboratory environments and defining best practice benchmarks. Karlsberger is an active participant and frequent speaker at laboratory planning and design workshops and conferences and have been utilized as chapter authors in several laboratory planning manuals for prominent industry related groups.
Karlsberger’s qualifications for planning and design are evidenced by its current work, repeat clients, and its approach for the education sector. Throughout the years the firm has worked with a diverse clientele and has gleaned a great deal of insight into design nuances. Karlsberger has applied its knowledge of functional design to educational environments with the goal of improving educational outcomes.
The firm has an established group of professionals who are dedicated to the art of evaluating existing space, developing functional space programs and site plans, and then putting it all together to create a manageable and innovative “road map” for clients. The firm has provided services for K-12 facilities, but primarily maintains a national reputation for the development of large, complex academic/educational facilities. Karlsberger understands today’s educational facilities needs, including extensive audiovisual and technology demands; distance learning capabilities; importance of interaction learning spaces; and resource and media centers.
Karlsberger has provided comprehensive planning, programming and architectural services for civic facilities ranging from justice to convention centers. Our experience with complex institutional projects, including food service, conference space, secured areas, and understandable wayfinding, provides a solid foundation for public work.
Karlsberger is a proponent of sustainable design solutions and believes that good design and green design go hand-in-hand. Currently, more than 25-percent of the firm’s staff are LEED® Accredited Professionals.
Karlsberger planned and designed the new Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas, the first hospital in the world to achieve Platinum-level LEED® certification. Completed in July 2007, the 473,000 sf hospital is the first redevelopment project on the former Austin municipal airport site.
Karlsberger is a Corporate Partner in the Green Guide for Health Care®, which is the healthcare sector’s first quantifiable sustainable design tool kit, integrating enhanced environmental and health principles and practices into the planning, design, construction, operations and maintenance of their facilities.
Numerous studies have shown dramatic increases in the health, happiness, and productivity of people who live and work in green buildings, and hospitals are no exception. Nurses, doctors, and other staff work long hours in a high-stress environment, and providing them with a safe and comfortable work place is vital both to their health and to the health of their patients.
Improvements in the working environment increase staff effectiveness and satisfaction and greatly reduce errors, greatly contributing to the quality of patient care.
To achieve design excellence, Karlsberger emphasizes a holistic and participatory approach to planning and design based on the needs and unique qualities of each client and selected site – an approach that balances design expectations, technical requirements, and budget constraints; in a manner that affirms your organization’s mission; supports the brand and identity goals; and makes positive contributions to the surrounding community.
This approach begins and ends with gaining a critical understanding of the overall operational goals of your organization and requires that operations drive the design. To that end, expert planning and operational consultants remain actively involved with your project throughout the design phases, assisting with the overlay and integration of operations from the program into the ultimate design.
As part of the firm’s design process, Karlsberger collects valuable information by involving the users in concentrated work sessions during the programming and operational consulting phases, and “charettes” during subsequent design phases.
More formal presentations, either internally or to community groups and local agencies, are given at key intervals throughout the design process. The firm has found this approach to be particularly important for organizations with high philanthropic expectations.
Big ideas create lots of questions. Finding answers means bringing in people who have “been there, done that…learned from it…and would do it again.”
Throughout the design process of new space, processes, and technology applications, the need for additional expert information may be needed. Our role is to make these connections and put the organization in touch with experts and peer institutions that they can either hire, call, or visit in order to gain additional knowledge.
Evidence-based design (EBD) is so important to Karlsberger that in 2005, EBD became one of the firm’s initiatives. The research conducted has allowed Karlsberger to develop a design process that infuses the projects with current and broad-based evidence, not only from the firm’s own work, but from leading healthcare institutions across the country.
As “thought leaders,” the firm shares research with peers and colleagues through lectures, publications and a collection of “Knowledge” papers on industry trends and benchmarks. Karlsberger has presented discoveries to groups such as the National Association of Children’s Hospitals and Related Institutions (NACHRI), the Healthcare Design Conference, and The Center for Health Design®. Karlsberger is one of the first architectural affiliates and an official research partner of The Center for Health Design.
The firm works with clients to integrate EBD concepts into projects. Design teams at Karlsberger are actively involved in creating environments in which to test and report new hypotheses and contribute to future research. Karlsberger’s design teams explore the integration of concepts to facilitate patient safety, reduce medical errors, encourage family involvement in patient care, and staff satisfaction.
Karlsberger prides itself in staying ahead of the curve using the next generation design and collaboration tools and has a standing commitment to utilize BIM software on all projects when possible.
To date, the firm has utilized this process on projects ranging in size from 10,000 to 1,000,000 plus square feet. With the success of each project, Karlsberger continues to refine project management, consultant coordination, and BIM protocols. This information has also proved useful to clients in the production of facility manuals and for ongoing maintenance purposes.
BIM software takes the design of a building to the next level. Karlsberger utilizes industry leading Autodesk Revit® as the BIM application of choice. Autodesk Revit® creates an environment where building design, cost analysis, and multi-discipline collaboration, both in-house and with consultants, begins on day one of the project.
Advanced project collaboration tools within Autodesk Revit® allows the firm to share a BIM model with any consultant. Consultants can then design their layouts and integrate them into Karlsberger’s model, providing the design team consistent information. Using this powerful design strategy allows the firm to instantly identify design conflicts and resolve issues proactively, rather than reactively.
The concept of a BIM model is to create the information once and have that information populate every associated drawing. Using Autodesk Revit®, Karlsberger develops documents in all three dimensions instead of the conventional method of creating a series of two-dimensional drawings. Coordination within a BIM model conveys an exponential level of detail to our consultants helping them to better understand our design and greatly diminishes the chance of inaccurate information. This three-dimensional information can also be used by the various trade contractors to put together their field and coordination shop drawings in such detail that field conflicts will be greatly reduced.
The nature of a BIM model not only allows contractors to have accurate information on the amount of materials required for a project, but also, makes the bidding process more exact. As BIM continues to develop, the contractor will also have the ability to utilize the BIM model directly on the job site, tracking the progress of the construction, coordinating various trades, and seamlessly working with the architects during construction administration.
The BIM model continues to be a vital piece of information beyond the design and construction phases. It will be a valuable resource throughout the life of your building. The BIM model can be utilized as a tool for the hospital’s facility management team to track current and future projects.
In the end, the goal is to create a design process that is superior by utilizing the power, communication, and accuracy, of the computer. This helps the designer, consultants, contractors, and the client better understand all aspects of the project.
Karlsberger has an independent, in-house, full-time, Quality Assurance Group dedicated to evaluating documents for completion, clarity, and appropriate level of details. The firm achieves a professional standard of quality and construction documentation at an efficient and economical level through several methodologies. Contract document quality assurance is perhaps the most important deliverable towards achieving these goals. The foundation of a project team’s quality assurance efforts is based on prevention rather than correction. Office standards, on-going reviews, and document coordination are steps taken to avert errors, omissions, discrepancies, and deficiencies. Karlsberger’s specifications and office standards are continually updated with ‘lessons learned’ from previous projects as feedback from the construction observation staff provided to Karlsberger’s Quality Assurance Group.
The Project Manager oversees all team members to confirm compliance with quality standards, contract drawings, and specifications. Not only is this strict attention reflected in the completed project, it is evidenced by the project schedule. Karlsberger’s Quality Assurance efforts eliminate time-consuming rework, and increase productivity. The firm’s library of pre-drawn, standard details have been instrumental in compressing the time required to document standard conditions, and provided additional time to address non-standard, custom conditions on a project.
