Patients, family + staff enjoy a tranquil respite at a world-class healthcare facility

Greenprint is the landscape architect for a new 6,700-square-foot therapeutic garden at the Carle Foundation Hospital, a world-class, regional healthcare provider in Urbana, Illinois. Located on the facility's sixth floor, the garden provides a transformative, tranquil oasis for patients, staff and family to escape the intensity of the hospital in a relaxing, nature-filled environment.

The garden is an accessible, year-round space offering fresh air, views, respite, healing and restoration. It consists of brightly colored trees, shrubs, perennials and potted plants intertwined with an immersive looping path that enables wheelchair and hospital bed access. Private seating nooks line the path allowing numerous parties of varying sizes to enjoy the space in solitude.

Design criteria included consideration of the existing hospital building’s extremely low structural load capacity and the site’s location above a neonatal intensive care unit. Wind uplift criteria also had to be met, so conforming to stringent loading parameters required careful tuning. Project goals were achieved using an ultra-lightweight horticultural growing media as the rooting substrate supporting plant growth.

The result is a lush ecosystem growing in six inches of growing media.