Life wouldn’t be worth living without challenges, right? Some of you may laugh and think, man, it sure would be easier to coast through life…uneventful and predictable. Well, I think you don’t grow as a person unless you’re really confronted with challenges. So, where am I going with this? In the past month, we have been challenged on our tranquility garden site. We discovered that the vents that existed outside our ICU “front” doors were actually owned by the City and that they must remain “as-is”. Not only that, but there was an underground vault that housed several transformers that powered the entire hospital. We couldn’t alter the paving around the vent area and we must retain vehicular access to them. And not just any vehicle, but a crane truck that weighs 73,400 pounds when lifting a transformer into the vault. Yeah, take a moment and let that marinate.
Photo by TBG Partners
Photo by TBG Partners
So, herein lies our challenge. How do we design our garden around this existing element that needs to stay? Well, we’re going to do the best design that we can to minimize the appearance and effect on our garden. We’re still going to give the ICU visitors a space where they can decompress. We just are really going to have to get creative to do this. Our MEP and the City have been great to work with so far to try and get to the bottom of what is needed for this area – so thank you guys! We’re probably going to have to incorporate walls and gates and screen planting and change our sight lines and pathways. Stay tuned for our redesigned garden plan!
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