If you've driven down Interstate 35 recently, you've probably seen it. The new Dell Children's Medical Center in East Austin is starting to take shape. It's three times as big as the current hospital and friendly to both children and the environment.

From the outside, it may not look much like a hospital.

"We're trying to make a scary situation of being in a hospital feel more friendly for the kids," said Alan Bell, director of design and construction for the Seton Family of Hospitals.

Bell says the new center is designed with children in mind. It has windows set at different heights for small children, eight courtyards, each designed after a specific region in Central Texas and a three-acre healing garden.

The hospital harvests light from the outside, and channels it into the chapel.

"Anywhere in the hospital, you're going to be within about 34, 35 feet of a window," said Bell.

The new center is also environmentally friendly. Bell says construction crews used mostly "green" materials to build.

"We did things with no formaldehyde, the paints that we use are low V-O-C paints," said Bell. Workers also used linoleum floors.

"It's actually a wood-based product, but it's very good in a healthcare environment, cleans very easily, very durable, it's not a vinyl product, it doesn't have PVCs in it. We didn't want to bring in materials that off-gas things when you bring it in, we didn't want to create a "sick building." said Bell.

The medical center also has its own energy plant and can generate its own electricity. That means if there were ever a citywide power outage, the hospital would not lose power.

"The plant generates heat and we're using that heat to create steam for the hospital, which we use in our process and we also use that to create the chilled water to run our air conditioning and heating systems," said Bell.

Most of the building materials came from local companies in order to reduce transportation costs and air pollution. Nearly 80 percent of the unused materials were recycled.

The Dell Children's Medical Center will be the first hospital in the world to have the highest possible ranking under a nationally-accepted green building rating system.

Moving day is set for June 30.