Roseburg, Oregon

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The design for the Acute Psychiatric Facility is a relocation of existing beds to the new 13-bed Acute Psych Ward located at the Roseburg Veterans Affairs  Medical Center. It serves a broad demographic of returning soldiers, from aging veterans of the Vietnam era to young and middle-aged veterans serving in Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom and future needs.

The VA Roseburg Medical Center is a safe acute psych environment that serves male and female veterans in a calm, residential atmosphere. The design promotes a sense of peace and security for both patients and staff. The landscape design involved the design of gardens and surrounding landscaping integrated with the hospital’s physical infrastructure while providing safe and secure outdoor areas for patients and staff.  The design included a courtyard garden for family, patients and pets, a patio garden adjacent to patient dining, a staff garden, an ecoroof as well as site and entry gardens.  The sustainable approach here also incorporates a rain garden and bioswales.

Oregon City, Oregon

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Laurel Macdonald Bonnell has worked on the Willamette Falls Hospital Campus on numerous building expansion projects over the past ten years.  She was asked to get involved with the Children’s Center and chose to donate all the initial design services to submit for Design Review in Oregon City, OR.  The two signature gardens were then designed and marketing perspectives were prepared for the Client so that addition donations and funding could be secured.  The recognition garden includes a small water feature, a sculpture of playing children and stone columns for the recognition of all the donors.

The characteristics and functions of a typical healing or therapeutic garden are becoming more widely documented, yet those for specialized healing environments within the hospital setting remain relatively unknown. We at MacDonald Environmental Planning are very excited to be working on three separate hospital projects with a “behavioral health” garden component, and adding to the dialogue on creating healing garden environments for these distinctive users in the months to come.
A well designed garden contributes substantially to the overall perception of health and wellness within any healing environment. A profusion of plants and plant/people interactions, defined seating areas and garden perimeters, easily readable pathways, and understandable wayfinding all work together to form gardens which provide a sense of security, serenity and safety for patients, family and staff alike.
When designing for the emotionally vulnerable and/ or cognitively impaired, security and safety become primary. Insure that gardens are indeed secure through physical enclosures such as high walls and plantings that are not scalable. Remove any potential weapons by securing furniture to paving, and using solid concrete rather than pavers or stone which could be dislodged and thrown. As in any healing environment, avoid any and all poisonous plants.
In this challenging economy, hospital administrators are facing strong pressures to become more patient- oriented and improve patient healthcare experiences. A number of studies have demonstrated the healing effects of nature to patients, families and staff in highly stressful situations. Additionally, it is being shown that creating gardens is an effective means for hospitals to achieve more positive market identities. As evidence-based design becomes the standard in hospital design, so too is the inclusion of healing or therapeutic gardens.

The Borealis Apartments, located in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle, incorporates green walls to buffer the residents from the busy traffic and screen the views of expansive parking lots to the south. The vines and climbing plants in these green façades are also intended to help screen the direct sun, purify the air for the residents and create a green link to Denny Park directly west of the site.

The green walls are comprised of prefabricated trough planters, green screens®, cables and plants. The planters are supported two-foot four-inches off of the building façade and alternate from side to side as they ascend up to the parapet arbor planters. The planters incorporate green screens® tied directly into the back of the planters and plant climbing cables which link the planters from floor to floor.

The biggest challenge in the design was to provide the planters with irrigation and drainage without compromising the building envelope. The plantings are irrigated from a rooftop connection in the mechanical room which drops down the building façade to the support brackets and out to the planters on each floor. The irrigation system is constructed with galvanized pipe, which will not deteriorate in the suns UV rays and complements the galvanized siding on the building façade.

Each planter is also fitted with a drain line to catch surplus water and keep it from splashing against the windows and building façade. Greening the Architecture on The Borealis integrates the building into the neighborhood.

Corvallis, Oregon

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