Hennepin Healthcare

Redleaf Center for Family Healing Remodel and Addition

A group therapy room with a circle of lounge chairs and access to a private room
People talk at the Hennepin Healthcare Redleaf Center's reception desk, surrounded by colorful artwork and gray waiting chairs
Two people enter the Redleaf Center and walk past a custom mosaic depicting a floor to ceiling tree
Two diagrams show the architect's design concept of creating space for the Redleaf Center below an existing hospital level and how the addition would look like a tree
The waiting area in the Redleaf Center features a soothing color palette and lots of comfortable waiting chairs with access to natural daylight
The Redleaf Center's activity room is a balance of adult therapy spaces and children's play spaces. The entire family can receive care in one open area
A detail shot of the stump-like children's seats in the Redleaf Center
The Redleaf Center's kitchen has modern amenities, a large TV, dining space, and bartop chairs for teaching opportunities

Hennepin Healthcare

Redleaf Center for Family Healing Remodel and Addition

Minneapolis, Minn.

The Redleaf Center for Family Healing expands upon the work of Hennepin Healthcare’s Mother-Baby Program, Minnesota’s first intensive mental health program for pregnant and postpartum mothers. Understanding the impact stress and trauma can have on children and parents, as well as the importance of bringing hope and joy into the lives of the families they serve, the one-of-a-kind Redleaf Center brings together day hospital outpatient services, perinatal outpatient programs, and mental health therapy for all family members.

The design captures the feeling of sitting under a tree — a moment when a person is open to the world, but at a calm distance. The canopy of a tree shelters, while the trunk supports and provides stability. The Redleaf Center’s location infills open space under existing hospital floors, and the floor plan’s main circulation emulates the gentle ambling of walking along a path within a forest. Local artists were engaged to create original artwork throughout, evoking feelings of safety, love, and belonging.

The new program space allows Redleaf to offer expanded services and further its mission to relieve suffering and break generational cycles of trauma by supporting parents in developing skills to provide the consistent and nurturing care all children need to thrive

Size: 14,920 sq. ft. (including mechanical)

Components: Flexible, on-site, drop-in childcare suite including enclosed outdoor green space; consult and exam rooms; parenting/family training and group therapy rooms; sanctuary space; teaching kitchen and gathering space for learning how to eat healthier; integrative therapy space for mind-body-spirit healing services

Completion: 2021