Health – NSW
WESTMEAD’S $659M HOSPITAL IS NSW’S BIGGEST PAEDIATRIC BUILD IN 25 YEARS
Author: Vanessa Croll
The Urban Developer
A 14-storey children’s hospital building has opened at Westmead, adding acute clinical capacity to one of Australia’s largest health precincts while making the case for design as a medical instrument.
Billard Leece Partnership (BLP) designed the Wattle Building for Health Infrastructure and Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network, as part of Westmead’s $659-million Stage 2 redevelopment. The 57,000sq m building consolidates theatres, intensive care, oncology, burns, cardiology, radiology and pharmacy services closer together on a campus caring for children from across NSW. But its most instructive work sits between the treatment rooms. Whimsical Australian animals follow children across ceilings as they move through the hospital in beds and treatment chairs. Intentionally designed play spaces with natural light and outdoor access include medical gases, so children on oxygen can still leave their rooms. These aren’t cute extras. They translate research around recovery, family-centred care, positive distraction, privacy, natural light and orientation into built form for children and families facing some of their hardest days. A campus-scale investment Westmead forms part of the largest investment in paediatric health in NSW in 25 years, alongside the new Sydney
Children’s Hospital at Randwick and the Minderoo Children’s Comprehensive Cancer Centre, which opened to patients late last year. The two projects were developed in dialogue rather than designed as replicas of each other. Randwick integrates clinical care, research and education around Australia’s first purpose-built comprehensive cancer centre for children and young people. Westmead has a different task: acute and complex care, statewide services, Western Sydney growth and a campus embedded in one of the world’s largest health, research, education and training precincts. Similar shifts are under way nationally. New hospitals in Footscray, Bundaberg and Adelaide are moving health briefs toward precinct planning, family experience and access to nature. BLP and COX are among the practices shaping this pipeline. For BLP principal and managing director Tara Veldman, the opening points to a wider shift in health infrastructure. “This is not simply a new hospital building. It is part of a wider rethinking of paediatric environments in NSW, where design is
A landscaped forecourt leads into the Wattle Building, where BLP’s river-inspired design shapes the entry and facade.
KidsWay turns a long internal route into part of the care experience, with curved forms, colour and child-scale nooks.
18 – June / July 2026
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