Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Lloyd Fox
The rooftop gardens on Mercy Medical Center's spanking new in-patient tower are a tribute -- and a compensation -- for the fact that the historically urban hospital decided to build downtown.
"The big message is that Mercy decided to stay downtown," said Catherine Mahan, a principal at Mahan Rykiel, the urban landscape firm that designed the three gardens. "But what they lost was any green space to do what hospitals are trying to do, which is connect patients to nature."
"The main purpose for having roof gardens at any hospital is the healing aspects. Studies have shown that access to green spaces have a very therapeutic effect," said Stephen Kelly, project manager.
"The roof was really the only place we had to provide that."
The bonus is the view. The gardens provide a view of the city, of course, but they also overlook the small park on St. Paul Street. The gardens remind patients not only of nature, but that there is a world around them. The bustle of the city reminds that life goes on. The view not only orients them in the city, but it lets them know they are part of a bigger social space.
The gardens are also a way for patients and visitors to orient themselves inside the new hospital - they can be seen from the elevator banks. "It is a way-finding spot," said Kelly. "It is a way for people to know where they are and that's an important tool."
Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Lloyd Fox
The gardens are located on the eighth, ninth and tenth floors, in a kind of cantilevered arrangement. Because of design issues, only the eighth- and ninth-floor gardens are open to patients, staff and visitors, although the tenth-floor garden can been seen from a waiting area.
The gardens cover 17,500 square feet, roughly half the roof area, and they will provide cooling and insulation for the building areas underneath, with a possible 30 percent savings in energy costs for those areas.
In addition, they will extend the life of that area of the roof, which won't be subject to the stresses of freezing and thawing.
And, they will catch storm water and whatever is not absorbed by the plants and the soil will be filtered by the soil before it enters the storm drains and, ultimately, the Chesapeake Bay.
Heidi Thomas was one of the project designers and, knowing that the gardens would be seen from above by patients, staff and visitors to the 18-floor building, she created bold forms.
"It is a kind of abstract spiral, representing rebirth or the growth process," said Thomas. "The form that connects all three gardens is a circular form, which is wholeness and unity. The fountain is located at the hub of the spiral and the circle."
Because people experience stress in different ways, the gardens provide private places for contemplation, walking areas and areas for groups to gather.
The gardens will improve the air quality as well. "Not only in the gardens, but also in the area that the hospital sits in. Every little bit of plant material you get in the urban area improves air quality. And it reduces street noise a bit, too," said Kelly.
The gardens are a construction challenge, of course. There is an irrigation and drainage system underneath and the soil depth ranges from four feet under the trees to 12 inches under the sod.
They are planted with 22 trees, 550 shrubs, 2,000 perennials, 22 vines, and 2,400 square feet of sod for a cost of about $1.5 million -- pennies compared to the $400 million price tag for the medical center project.
"It is a new garden and it will take a few years to mature," said Mahan. "But the design is so strong, it is working well now and it will only be better in the future."
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