Hospitals adopt ‘wellness architecture’

According to Kelly Crace, a psychologist and assistant vice president of health and wellness for a college in Williamsburg, Virginia, the same can be said for the McLeod Tyler Wellness Center at the College of William and Mary. Completed in 2018, the $19 million, 31,000-square-foot center is sandwiched between a wildlife sanctuary and a garden, with just enough glass for a panoramic view of it all. It houses the college’s student medical center, counseling center, health promotion office, and recreational areas for activities such as yoga and art therapy.

“We spent a couple of years researching and trying to understand the architecture of health, the architecture of healing, and what that might be like,” Kreis said. According to him, the school decided to place its wellness center in the building because “nature provides this three-dimensional space. Nature gives us the opportunity to practice in a very healing way.”

Many organizations do not have the infrastructure to build from scratch or license large biophilic modifications. Still occupying 19th-century buildings, NYC Health + Hospitals has been connecting their patients to nature through art, among other things, since the 1930s. The health system is the city’s largest public art collector and displays over 600 murals and 3,000 artworks across its 11 facilities.

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Despite some building restrictions, Oscar Gonzalez, senior assistant vice president of health systems for capital development, is hopeful that the organization will explore more health-focused projects in the future.

“There’s something wonderful about being able to walk into a room and be like, ‘Wow, I just walked into the lobby and I feel like I’m going to get well just by walking in. No one has connected anything to me, nothing has been done except to walk into a space that makes me feel good,” he said. “This is the direction we want to go.