Published in the Herald and News March 25, 2005

By MARCIA HARRIS
For the Herald and News

One of Klamath Falls' newest buildings will include a rooftop garden complete with trees and flowers, a first-floor open atrium with a water feature, lots of light everywhere and spectacular views. It's not some fancy condo or hotel. It's the hospital.

Planners of Merle West Medical Center's new building want to change the traditional hospital environment from one of stress and sterility to a space that promotes healing, according to Leslie Flick, a hospital vice president.

She and landscape architect Laurel MacDonald spoke to local gardeners Tuesday about the project. They hope local garden clubs will pitch in and help with maintenance after the gardens are built and planted.

Flick said patients often feel a loss of control in hospitals.

Patients lives revolve around the hospital's schedule. They have little control over medical tests or even the food they eat. They can't even sleep through the night with nurses waking them to check their vital signs. Meanwhile, family and friends feel at a loss, stressed and unable to cope.

"Creating healing spaces is about restoring control" to our families and to our patients, Flick said. MacDonald heads up Portland-based MacDonald Environmental Planning, which has designed several medical facilities in the region incorporating healing environments.

She said the concept of healing environments has really taken off in the last five years. And studies have shown that healing environments actually have measurable therapeutic benefits, she said.

"Studies show that living, growing things actually make you feel better," MacDonald said. That goes for stressed hospital employees as well as patients and visitors, she said.

MacDonald said creating a healing environment involves more than just creating a garden. It takes into account the total environment. It incorporates views, art, inviting pathways, places to meditate and places to get exercise.

MacDonald is excited about the Merle West project. The new building will be built out from the front of the existing hospital. The lobby will include an open-air courtyard garden with a water feature. Glass-enclosed circular stairs will allow a view of this area from three floors. The water feature will also be visible from a meditation room.

This area will provide a wonderful first impression for anyone entering the hospital, MacDonald said. A second-floor roof garden will be located near the physical therapy gym so patients can easily take walks in it. There will be room for wheelchairs and other seating as well as a trellis and a labyrinth pathway. "Walking a labyrinth really allows you to focus in the moment," Flick said, and that helps alleviate stress.

The second floor also will have a terrace garden for employees with views to the first-floor courtyard. The third floor, where patients are less ambulatory, will have views of the gardens below. And the new, larger patient rooms will have views of the surrounding hills as well as room for family to stay over.

Garden plantings will include evergreen and deciduous trees, as well as perennials. MacDonald has chosen spruce, Canadian chokecherry, dwarf white pine, magnolia, mountain hemlock, Oregon grape, ornamental grasses, daylillies, coral bells, black-eyed Susans.

The plants were chosen to look good in winter, since they will be in open areas. A reliance on evergreens will be particularly important in the winter, MacDonald said.

The garden rooftop is a complex design that takes into account insulation, protection and drainage.

The roof will be sloped to allow drainage from snow, rain and drip irrigation. MacDonald said she is a little worried about the thaw-freeze process, but she thinks the use of a special growing medium will help.

Flick said she's sure birdhouses will be included. Even Klamath Falls midges are being taken into consideration. Lighting is designed to help discourage the little green visitors, Flick said.

Merle West Medical Center Foundation director Sally-Ann Palcovich said the healing gardens are actually helping with raising funds for the project.