Illinois' Elmhurst Memorial Hospital representatives are hoping the new campus will do something the building couldn't -- help people forget they are in a hospital.
The design for the new campus will feature extensive landscaping, including several "healing gardens," all intended to be the antithesis of the cold, institutional feel of a traditional hospital.
The hospital will have 14 gardens, outdoor and indoor, said spokesman Kyle Bauer. Some will be designed as gathering spots for patients' families and hospital employees; others will be "healing gardens," or more reflective areas for patients, themselves.
"A lot of it plays into ... our adoption of the Planetree philosophy," Bauer said.
The Planetree model of care is a patient-focused philosophy established by the nonprofit Planetree Alliance. The gardens are being designed by Mariani Landscaping in Lake Bluff, which has designed similar spaces at other institutions, including Plymouth Place Senior Living in La Grange and Aurora Summit Hospital in Oconomowoc, Wis.
Such extensive landscaping is becoming popular among hospitals, said Shannon Mitchell of Mariani Landscaping, the project manager for the Elmhurst Hospital gardens.
"I think it's starting to be more of a holistic approach to healing and medicine," he said.
The Elmhurst project will be the most extensive Mariani Landscaping has undertaken, Mitchell said. It will include a landscaped path from Brush Hill Road to the main entrance, three courtyards and three acres of ponds, Bauer said.
Mitchell called one of the gardens "The Garden of Life," a rooftop garden surrounded by delivery rooms. That garden will use the lotus flower as a design theme. The chapel courtyard, he said, will be filled with large pieces of marble that will be illuminated at night, an appealing sight for children whose rooms will be nearby.
"My whole philosophy through design is to invest meaning into the sites," Mitchell said.
Bauer said the new hospital atmosphere doesn't stop with the gardens. The entire facility will feel inviting, partially through the use of 60,000 square feet of glass.
"When you walk in the doors, it should be calming and put you at ease," he said.