Healing Garden Greensboro, North Carolina USA

This design fulfills two critical concerns in the field of landscape architecture today:

•  human health + wellness

•  environmental resiliency

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This new destination on the Wesley Long Hospital campus adds a unique dimension to the healing power of the Cancer Treatment Center. The Center, located along the Buffalo Creek, is adjacent to a federally regulated wetland that functions as biofiltration for seven acres of stormwater runoff from surrounding paved areas. This dynamic hydrologic system, retained its function, yet was re-visioned as a welcome reprieve to patients, staff + families who have particular need for comfortable, peaceful, and welcoming places outdoors. A new fully ADA compliant boardwalk provides access to new terraces, numerous seating options, lush flowering plants, a restored stream channel, a restored wetland, a retrofitted biocell, and a native grassland meadow full of birdsong now populate this once barren vineland.

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Long-term maintenance is endowed. Still, the design needed to address the dynamic natural processes of the wetland. A site-responsive maintenance plan was developed to address the unexpected: the garden lost its largest tree to an ice storm, a sudden rain washed hundreds of new plants downstream, the recent discovery of the elm bark beetle. Experimental in its approach, new stewardship strategies address such environmental variables to keep the garden alive + thriving.

A very special mission, the design team consisted of a dedicated group of engineers, contractors, consultants + landscape architects - many of whom were cancer survivors - and all of whom believed in the value of such landscapes for the healing process.

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*Portions of this project were designed by Claudia Dinep. She was a design and ecological consultant to Studio Pagliai of Greensboro NC and designed the wetland herbaceous floor and meadow gardens.