The VUMC plaza in Nashville, Tenn., was recently reimagined as an all-campus healing garden that is accessible to patients and the medical center’s community. The renovated plaza is located on top of an existing roof measuring 53,000 sq. The renovated plaza sits atop an existing 53,000 sq. The original waterproofing on the 1980 hospital building was due to be replaced. This required the removal of brick, plants, and overburden that had been left largely unattended for 30 years. The maintenance requirement provided an opportunity to enhance the experience of patients, visitors, and staff by rethinking the plaza.
Design objective: create an outdoor space that supports activities such as independent pursuits, collegial groups and family gatherings. The completed plaza achieves this with diverse seating arrangements in beautiful landscaping and clear canopies at the entrances of each building. To facilitate these functions, multi-sized seating clusters were introduced. Canopy trees and trellises provided shade. The main technical challenge was developing an overburden that could be easily removed to allow access to the waterproofing membrane. The overburden system included a leak-detection device to detect failures.
A new wayfinding strategy was used to organize the plaza, focusing on enhanced building entrances and clearly delineated pathways. Placards were placed next to luminaires on the exterior and canopies with lights were added for major building entrances.
