Kaiser Permanente Continuum of Care Meditation Garden

When Kaiser Permanente planned to renovate staff offices into a meditation room for visitors to the Intensive Care Unit, they asked Carlile Macy to transform an adjacent outdoor patio space frequented by hospital staff on break into a private garden. The garden, seen by hospital visitors and patients through the  room’s large windows,  needed to provide a serene and healing view looking out while screening views in through the hospital for privacy reasons. To accomplish this, Carlile Macy designers worked with custom fabricators to create corten steel panels, arranged in precise angles to allow hospital staff glimpses into the garden while protecting views in to the windows. The open, staggered layout of panels also prevented the garden from feeling fenced in and confined when viewed from within the hospital. Inspired by Japanese zen gardens, the design features ripples of smooth pebbles and plants, each emanating out from two focal points: a weeping blue cedar and balanced boulders. The planting palette was selected to provide low-maintenance, year-round interest and seasonal variation—important for visitors and patients who may be staying for an extended period of time.