UW MEDICINE | SEATTLE, WA
Site:
This site is the main entrance to the University of Washington Hospital in Seattle, Washington. It is a flat site with an automobile turnout for transporting visitors. Approximately 75% of the site is covered with a planter which prohibits pedestrian cross traffic. Sliding glass doors connect the plaza to the hospital, gift store and café.
Uses:
The projected primary goal for the plaza is a transitional connector between the hospital and the city, providing patients and visitors with a waiting center for automobile transportation. It also functions as a center for outdoor leisure activities.
Concept:
The concept is structured on patient rehabilitation. A boulder mist fountain, emitting a diffused glow, sits at the center of the site and symbolizes injury or illness. A rotating swale of grass unwinds from the boulder mist fountain, evoking a continual upward progression to recovery. Radiating walls represent significant thresholds to recovery.
Elements:
The boulder mist fountain is the core element. The boulders, acting as remnants of an injury or illness, follow the swale of grass as it revolves outward and diminish as they rotate away from the core. Concurrently, the swale of grass grows progressively taller and greener as it revolves out. At one point, the radiating walls block the boulders from continuing and symbolically halt the remnants of injury or illness. Throughout the site, however, the walls allow for the swale of grass to cut through them.
