When Dr. Mark Laperouse and his team at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center sat down to make plans for a renovation for the emergency department, they did not expect to turn to 16 LSU undergrads.
A $55 million renovation began in August 2025 at Our Lady of the Lake, the only Level 1 trauma center in the Baton Rouge area. The hospital cited two reasons for the refresh: to increase capacity and improve patient care.
Our Lady of the Lake emergency room to undergo $55M renovations. Here’s what to know.
“We wanted the environment to match the quality of care inside the department so there’s nothing left for misinterpretation,” Laperouse said.
In 2019, Laperouse, the physician medical director of emergency services at the Lake, reached out to Julie Elliott, a professor of interior design at LSU’s College of Art & Design and a health care interior designer of 30 years. Elliott, who has worked on large projects with Our Lady of the Lake, Tulane, Ochsner and national projects, was the perfect fit for the job.
Laperouse and Elliott met at a coffee shop to discuss the basics of health care design.
“The emergency room and department didn’t feel warm and inviting,” Laperouse said of the old emergency department design. “It’s all the same color.”
Two months after their initial conversation, Laperouse proposed that Elliott work with her students at LSU to design the space.
Laperouse joined the students in one of their first classes of the semester to “pitch” them the prospective project to design Our Lady of the Lake’s new emergency room — including future plans for the waiting room, lobby and treatment rooms in the hospital.
“I told him, ‘You have to sell this health care design thing to them,'” Elliott said. “They didn’t know they were going into health care when they signed up for the class.”
Laperouse won the students over, according to Elliott, and 16 students ended up working on a 5-month-long project to learn, understand and reinvent the existing hospital space.
Before designing a residential or business space, the typical interior designer considers purpose and function. A kitchen needs an oven. An office needs desk space. An office floor needs a break room for coffee and drinks.
LSU interior design students present their final projects to Our Lady of the Lake executives and Perkins & Will.
Hospitals, especially emergency rooms, need a bit more than that.
“It’s all about evidence-based design. You have to future-proof your space,” Elliott said. “Health care designs need to be able to take you into the next 30 years — or 40 years — into the future.”
The Lake is one of three Level I trauma centers in Louisiana and the only one in metro Baton Rouge. It earned the designation in 2022.
Level I trauma centers provide the highest level of trauma care. To earn the designation, a hospital must admit at least 1,200 trauma patients per year, or 240 patients with severe injuries, and provide 24-hour emergency care that includes operating room availability within 15 minutes and round-the-clock availability of specialists. They must also be national leaders in medical education and research.
“The emergency department is the front door of the hospital,” Laperouse said. “Of our patients, 60% to 70% start out in the emergency department.”
In the fall of 2019, Laperouse took all 16 students to the hospital, let them shadow staff in the emergency room and even took them to the helipad as part of their research. They looked at case studies, old emergency rooms and new emergency rooms to inform their design decisions.
Some design considerations that impact health outcomes include, according to Elliott:
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Commuter stairs with access to natural daylight
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Universally designed walkways and trails
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Convenient water bottle filling stations
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Sit to stand desks
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Access to outdoor spaces
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Respite areas
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Spaces that engage the senses
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Access to fresh produce markets.
Students looked at how natural daylight, calming colors and imagery can have positive impacts on health. They also looked at more practical components of design like hospital wayfinding — signage and directions for visitors to find their way — infection prevention designs and which materials can hold up to bleach cleaners.
The goal was to put students in the shoes of a patient or a family member in order to make more informed decisions about the space.
“In the design, we wanted to ask ourselves: What does it feel like to be laying on a stretcher and look at title windows? What does it feel like to be a family member searching for your loved one?” Laperouse said.
The students were divided into four groups, each with their own responsibility to present full design plans to Our Lady of the Lake and the Dallas-based architectural firm, Perkins & Will, who would implement their designs, by the end of the semester.
In December 2019, each group presented their prospective designs for the emergency room. One group had skylights. Another had a clear story. One group used blue. Another used green. One group focused on Louisiana and local patterns. Another used geometric shapes.
The students worked together for four hours, three times a week on their project presentations, wanting their hard work to be reflected in their final presentation with real stakeholders.
LSU interior design students presented full design plans to Our Lady of the Lake and the architectural firm, Perkins & Will, for the hospitals new emergency department.
“At the time, I probably seemed demanding, but I pushed them,” Elliott said. “When all is said in done, I wanted them to feel like they were actually doing something that matters.”
Our Lady of the Lake and Perkins & Will chose to mix all four design concepts together to use as their new emergency department plans. The COVID-19 pandemic delayed construction, but the new emergency department is expected to be completed in 2027.
Additional emergency medical services bays, exam rooms and treatment rooms will boost the emergency room capacity by 33%. With the expansion, hospital officials said the emergency department will be able to see an additional 25,000 patients a year — above the current volume of 85,000 patients annually.
Elliott says the some of the students got interior design jobs because of the Our Lady of the Lake project.
“It’s rewarding to see students grow,” Elliott said. “It’s very meaningful work. You’re building a place to help people get better.”
Construction at Our Lady of the Lake emergency department will have three phases and add 20 expanded treatment spaces.
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