Built Works « Therapeutic Landscapes Network

Healing garden for a veteran wins national award

July 25, 2014 | by Naomi Sachs

The Wounded Warrior home, built for the Solar Decathalon, with its award-winning landscape design

George Washington University graduate students Julie Melear, Janet Conroy, and Mary Sper’s landscape design for HARVEST HOME, a Wounded Warrior home built for a veteran, has won the Gold Award in outdoor design from the Association for Professional Landscape Design (APLD). The house was designed and built by college students competing in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon, which challenges collegiate teams to design solar powered houses that are cost effective, energy efficient, and attractive.

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Boston Children’s Hospital’s Prouty Garden under threat of demolition. Guest post by Clare Cooper Marcus

September 17, 2013 | by Naomi Sachs

Boston Children's Hospital Prouty Garden

The Prouty Garden at Boston Children’s Hospital has served as a tranquil green urban oasis since 1956

The Prouty Garden at Boston Children’s Hospital has, for generations of patients, family members, and staff, served as a much-loved retreat from the clinical atmosphere inside. The garden was created in 1956, sponsored by Mrs. Olive Prouty whose two children had died in the hospital. Now it is under threat of demolition as the hospital looks for space to expand on its very urban site.

A petition to save the garden has already garnered over 6,500 signatures, but they need more! Please sign and help spread the word. Newspaper articles and radio reports (see, for example, WBUR and The Boston Globe) have taken up the story to plead for the retention of this irreplaceable green oasis.

A Scientific American article last year called the Prouty Garden “one of the most successful hospital gardens in the country.” Though though constructed long before our research-based knowledge of the critical issues in hospital garden design – it is almost perfect as a restorative space in healthcare. (more…)

Therapeutic Gardens in San Diego – San Diego Hospice

November 7, 2011 | by Naomi Sachs

San Diego Hospice, pergola at entrance. Photo by Naomi Sachs

Before the official start of the ASLA (American Society of Landscape Architects) conference last week, I had the good fortune of attending a “meeting before the meeting” tour of several gardens at healthcare facilities in the San Diego area with the ASLA Healthcare and Therapeutic Design Professional Practice Network. Chris Garcia did an amazing job of planning the tour and coordinating the entire day. Kudos to Chris and to all of the good people who opened their doors and let us tromp through their facilities, asking millions of questions and taking lots of pictures.

In the next couple of blog posts, I’ll share some impressions and photos from our tour, in chronological order of what we visited.

No, this is not a luxury hotel, these are the rooms, w/ balconies, at the San Diego Hospice. Photo by Naomi Sachs

San Diego Hospice

Garden type: Hospice “tribute garden”
Designers: Wimmer, Yamada and Caughey
Built: 2000
Visiting: As this is a hospice, you should definitely call first if you’d like to visit.

The following is an excerpt from the article “Hospital Gardens That Help Heal,” by E’Louise Ondash, RN

Peggy Lee, RN, a staff nurse for 15 years at the Inpatient Care Center at San Diego Hospice, has no doubt that its Tribute Garden serves as a place where patients, families and staff can rest and renew.

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