RICHLAND -- This blueprint comes complete with sketches of fish, dolphins, turtles and lobsters.

Unrolled on the unfinished fifth floor of Kadlec Medical Center's River Pavilion Tower the plans also show the future walls and counters of the children's wing.

Less than a year after announcing plans to expand its recently built $70 million tower, the hospital began construction last month on its undersea-themed Don and Lori Watts Pediatric Center.

Though the $7.8 million wing is beams, steel and concrete now, the hospital hopes to open the 25,000-square-foot unit to patients by the end of the year.

"I'm amazed by how much they got done in a short period of time," said Don Watts, a major donor for the wing.

Starting in April 2007, Kadlec quietly raised more than $6.4 million for the project before making the campaign public last February. Since then, it has raised $1 million more.

"Without (donor) support, the project would truly still be on the drawingboard," said Larry Christensen, Kadlec's vice president of resource development. "It's not about Kadlec, it's about the needs of our community and the surrounding area."

The hospital borrowed money from Key Bank to begin construction and will continue to raise money, Christensen said.

The 20-room unit will double the number of beds in the hospital's children's ward.

"That means we shouldn't have to turn patients away," said Dr. Josh Weldin, the medical director of Kadlec's pediatric hospitalist service. "This will allow us to expand the kinds of services greatly."

The new unit will allow some kids with cancer who now have to travel to Spokane, Seattle or Portland to stay in the Tri-Cities to receive chemotherapy.

That will save families time, stress and travel expenses because those who suffer from the most common form of childhood leukemia have to get monthly chemo treatments for three years, Weldin said.

The space also might allow Kadlec to form a pediatric intensive care unit -- four larger rooms on the unit are equipped for future expansion -- and perhaps let children and their families stay in town for surgeries by bringing in specialists from Seattle Children's hospital, with which Kadlec has a partnership.

"This floor will really be mission focused and do things we haven't even thought up yet," Weldin said.

And the floor's undersea theme -- complete with a floor-to-ceiling aquarium that's more than 15 feet across -- will provide a welcoming and educational environment for patients and their families, hospital officials say.

Each room will feature a different undersea creature, such as seals or starfish.

"It will be a lot of fun for patients, fun for parents, I think, and create something interesting for siblings," Christensen said.

And the longest wall on the unit will display a map of the world showing where each creature lives.

"It will be both a piece of art as well as an educational tool," Christensen said. "We see children bringing their parents back here to show them this piece of art.

"(The unit) is going to be a project that Don and Lori (Watts) can be proud of, as well as our entire community."