Healing Garden Earns Best Project Award

The Healing Garden was one of 16 indoor plant environments given the 2009 Best Project Award by Interiorscape, a nationwide trade magazine for the interior plantscape business. The winners – hospitals, malls, universities, casinos and corporate headquarters selected from hundreds of entries – were featured in the Jan./Feb. 2009 edition of the magazine.*

Award recipient Scott De Vecht, co-owner of Foliage Design Systems of Western Michigan, describes Holland Hospital’s garden, which opened in early 2008, as a “feng shui-type design” which makes use of natural materials, textures, aromas (depending on which plants are in bloom), and even the sound of moving water.

“It was our intent to have conversation areas built into the design itself, with plants placed to provide privacy for patients and visiting family members,” says De Vecht, who continues to maintain the year-round garden.

Staff, visitors and, increasingly, patients are enjoying the results, according to Healing Environment Coordinator Jillian Mead. “The garden is being utilized even more than we expected,” she says. “For many people, it truly is a place of healing.”

*Holland Hospital's Healing Environment was also featured on the cover of the Nov./Dec. 2008 edition, above.

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