A Synergy of Nature and Light

RGB LED grazers (Color Kinetics, Powercore by Philips) set contemporary interior walls aglow. Light ticks the wall-top railing, and dusts trees outside the garden with soft color, an amenity to garden users, pedestrians and drive-by traffic.

Located in Cleveland's University Hospitals' downtown Case Medical campus, the new Seidman Cancer Center (SCC) represents an important consolidation of cancer care, from diagnosis to inpatient and outpatient treatment. Location of the SCC on a previously underutilized street corner of the overall Case Medical Campus allowed a transformation to the campus' primary entrance and image.

Detailed patient input showed a desire for a place of calm to recharge the spirit, a green space with lots of plants, somewhere to escape even for a moment, allowing those journeying with cancer something to hang onto; a place to feel a rock's strength and to be inspired with quotes.

That place is the new 13,000 sq. ft. Schneider Healing Garden at the front door of the Seidman Cancer Center, bounded on two sides by busy Euclid Avenue and newly realigned UH Drive. The Seidman Cancer Center overlooks the garden, redefining the view for thousands of patients in the palliative care rooms, and staff from SCC and adjacent buildings, and giving family members a contemplative place to walk to help relieve stress.

Combined with the staff/management desire to make a tangible commitment to creating positive patient experience, the garden's design puts patient needs at its heart, creating an exterior healing environment that shows the mission and values of the organization. Clarity of circulation and placement of the garden at the entry invites one and all to enjoy the garden.

While weighing all the input for what the garden should be, landscape architect Virginia Burt found inspiration in A.A. Milne's poem "Halfway Down." Milne (1882 "?u1956) is the British author British author best known for his two Winnie-the-Pooh books.

Halfway up the stairs
Isn't up,
And isn't down.
It isn't in the nursery,
It isn't in the town.
All sorts of funny thoughts
Run round my head:
It really isn't Anywhere!
It's somewhere else Instead!

Shielded tree-mounted 3K LED luminaires (from Winona) splash shadows of leaf, bract and branch onto the heated granite labyrinth. Species include sweet gum, fern leaf beech and London plane trees.

 

The walled garden has an intriguing fractal gate inlaid with native black locust wood. At its center is an impressionistic heart. The four elements"?uearth, air, fire, and water"?uare represented in the garden. "Fire" in the landscape is represented by such planting as the lurid red "Hot Papaya' and orange "Sunset' coneflowers (Echinacea) (left), uplit "Diane' witch-hazel (right), and a lava inspired bronze fire ring sculpture (fabricated by O'Keefe Casting) lit with orange LEDs.

The ultimate client – the cancer patient or a distraught loved one needed an archetypal island, a separate oasis – a "somewhere else instead." The garden descends gradually below street level with integrated wall and railing to create a gentle sense of separation from the street. The walled garden has a delightful fractal gate inlaid with native black locust wood, creating an impressionist heart where one touches the gate to pass into the garden. Above the garden are eight stories of room-bound patients able to look down to the garden for positive distractions. The emotional well being of patients plays an important role in healing. Views of nature, seasonal changes and colored lighting at night contribute to creating healing patient focused care.

The Labyrinth
A granite labyrinth for walking meditation is located at the center of the garden. As an archetypal symbol, the mysterious winding path that takes one to the center becomes a metaphor for one's journey with cancer. With its opening beckoning an invitation, the labyrinth is a walking meditation tool engaging the right brain. Unlike a maze, a labyrinth has a single path (unicursal) in and out. A maze could cause anxiety. Just following the curving path leads one to the center and back out again. Editor's note: According to Through the Labyrinth (2000), seven-course unicursal labyrinth designs were depicted as early as 430 B.C. on Greek coins.

The labyrinth provides opportunities for organized programs by hospital staff and self-initiated walks by any who visit the garden. My best test groups are children. They walk, well, more often run, the labyrinth with glee and excitement. Studies show that walking a labyrinth at any age lowers one's heart rate and blood pressure. The experience of a labyrinth, whether seated at the perimeter, looking down from rooms above or experiencing a candle-light walk – mysteriously connects us to something greater than we are. A snow-melt system ensures that the labyrinth remains accessible and vibrant during Cleveland's long winter months.

The Mary & Al Schneider Healing Garden is at the front door of the Seidman Cancer Center in Cleveland, bounded by busy Euclid Avenue (left) and the newly realigned UH Drive. The garden descends gradually below street level with integrated walls and railings to create a gentle sense of separation from the street. Patients can view the garden from any one of the center's eight stories.

The color grazers side light a salvaged sandstone carving of a tuning fork from the former building that is mounted on the upstand wall.

The Four Elements Surrounding the labyrinth are representations of Nature's four elements (earth, air, fire, water). Located at the four cardinal directions, supportive care programs are able to facilitate families, groups and individuals journeying with cancer while walking the labyrinth and holding each element in mind. Air is represented by a kinetic double helix of colorful orange disks; fire by uplit plants and a lava inspired bronze sculpture lit with orange lights; earth by a six-ton granite, two-sided bench polished and carved with human ergonomics in mind; and water represented by an accessible skim of water heated with excess steam from the hospital for year round use. Four varied effects – reflection, pop jets, laminar leapers and mist create varied sounds, capture sparkling sunshine, create a microclimate and encourage interaction by folks of all ages.

Lighting Design
The lighting was designed to create a lantern effect throughout the night. The subtly walled garden is uplighted with LED fixtures, computer controlled to cycle through the soothing colors of the seven chakras, especially for long winter evenings. RGB LED grazers set contemporary interior walls aglow. Light ticks the wall-top railing and dusts trees outside the garden with soft colors, an amenity to garden users, pedestrians and drive-by traffic. The LED lighting sequence, representing the seven chakras (energy centers) of the body, is automated from dusk to dawn.

Accent lighting is simple, sustainable and easily maintained. Shrouded, louvered, low-wattage, ground-mounted metal halide PAR20s highlight such select trees as yellowwoods and Japanese maples. Shielded tree-mounted LED luminaires splash shadows of leaf, bract and branch onto the stone labyrinth – species include sweet gum, fern leaf beech and London plane trees.

RBG "ColorGraze' LEDs (inset right) set interior walls aglow (right), inviting visitors to enjoy the healing garden at night. The tree uplighting is simple, sustainable and easily maintained. Multistem honey locust trees (right) are uplit from the other side of the wall with 39-watt metal halide Par20 lamps, as is the Bloodgood Japanese maple (left).

Seating Arrangements Various chairs and tables, benches and wide steps all offer varieties of configurations where a patient may perch. Staff meetings are held in the garden on nice days. Here, family members take their loved ones for short visits. Some enjoy a snack here; others offer prayers. Finding a shady spot to sit under the sweet gum, or snuggled under a beech tree, or even moving a chair to sit in the sun on a warm March day is accommodated at each opportunity in the garden.

Plant Palette
Layered plantings are lush and dense. The palette was selected for outstanding year round features: fall colors, textures, bark patterns, branching structures, and blooming times.

Eight varieties of native trees, dwarf evergreens, shrubs, and perennials create a stimulating sensory environment. Species were selected to facilitate a sense of well being in an environment of life and living.
Other criteria for gardens of this nature were met and exceeded raising the bar for health care design including use of natural materials, mental, emotional, spiritual and physical stimulation, ease-of-way finding, year-round access, continuous interest and change, and engaging multiple senses all contribute to make this garden a success – creating that "somewhere else instead" environment.

The LED lighting sequence, representing the seven chakras of the body, is automated from dusk to dawn. The granite boulder (left) is "Earth," a two sided bench carved from a six ton granite boulder. Reclaimed barn stone borders the walkway.

Mounted at several heights as grades changed within the garden, the grazers are set one foot off the medium sandblasted concrete wall, and at a height above typical snow levels.

At a precise moment in the dedication ceremony a set of Tibetan bells was rung. The church across the street answered with its own peal of bells. Up came the lights; then the water feature began a cycle of laminar leapers.

Role of the Landscape Architect
Collaborating and navigating with a complex team of three architectural teams (SCC plus two adjacent buildings) and a master planning team, the lead designer, landscape architect Virginia Burt, OALA, RLA, ASLA, had to balance the practical with the ethereal. She had to design with the diverse needs and desires of cancer patients in mind, yet within tight spatial restrictions.

Working with a health care organization, all design and technical requirements were under continuous review for cost control and consistent guidance at all stages. As a steadfast advocate for putting the patient first, Virginia advocated for appropriate space, natural materials, custom sculpture/artwork (while handling various artistic natures with technical long-term maintenance needs), integration of varied custom fabrications through to designing the opening ceremony and coordinating with donors"?uall with a goal of creating an island of calm in the heart of the city.

A Testament to the Garden's Success
Since its official opening in October 2011, the Schneider Healing Garden has inspired an overwhelmingly positive public response that is far beyond Seidman Cancer Center's expectations. In an anonymous letter to the center's president, a cancer survivor wrote: "As I sat quietly by myself, a wave of emotion washed over me that was completely unexpected. As I walked the labyrinth, I became intensely aware of how this garden brings a new level of healing to my heart. I can only imagine what it will mean to people who are coming here during their long course of treatment. It is an ongoing gift to those who come back many years after treatment and find comfort for past fear and sorrow in this beautiful space."