St. Mary Medical Center

CVDA has a long-term working relationship with St. Mary Medical Center and has created over 21 different campus, green roof and healing garden projects.  The Cloister Garden was one of the first premium healing garden projects, located in the center of the campus.  Carter van Dyke and the Friends of the Healing Garden at St. Mary Medical Center developed the concept and raised the necessary funds. The master plan includes multiple gardens, each with a separate theme. The first garden, located within the central courtyard of the medical center, was designed to create a relaxing and healing environment for patients, visitors, and staff. The garden was developed with a Japanese theme; one enters the dining terrace through a Japanese tea house. The terrace is enclosed with fencing to separate it from the remainder of the garden, where people may wish to enjoy the garden alone.

 

St. Mary Medical Center contains a linked system of healing gardens.  Included in the system is the Emergency Department Garden.  Located just outside of the Emergency Department Waiting Room, the garden features exposed aggregate sidewalks, accent garden lighting, an arbor, and a collection of trees, evergreens, shrubs and perennials.  The purpose of the garden is to provide an alternative sitting area away from the main waiting area.  The plantings in front of the window were kept low to maintain visibility for security personnel.

Once filled with gravel, this courtyard has been transformed into an outdoor healing garden for chemotherapy patients. The specialized use dictated certain parameters of the design—no fragrant flowers, screening from adjacent hallways and upper floors, and a desire to create a space that relaxes patients waiting for or undergoing treatment.  The design of the garden features white shade sails to bring the space, once dwarfed by adjacent buildings, to a comfortable human scale.  Horizontal shade sails symbolize the compromised situation of patients when they have to focus not on rushing through life, but gathering their recuperative strength.  Rainwater cascades from one sail to another into a rain garden, an example of progressive stormwater management practices that can be used in interior courtyards. The soothing sounds of running water not only help to establish a serene atmosphere, but also direct the eye to the marble fountain and bronze doves, rather than onto other patients.  Aluminum screens will fill in with clematis, further enclosing the private spaces.  This program element—to screen patients, yet provide views into the garden from adjacent hallways—was the biggest challenge of the design process, complicated still more by the limited 2½ foot access for installation.  The project demonstrates that even a small space can achieve the mission of providing healing gardens within an institutional setting.