Good Samaritan reached out to Valley Quest design looking for special assistance with a specific location on their Lake Forest Village campus. Patients at this wing were receiving end-of-life care and the landscaping viewed from their bedroom windows was underperforming. Working with a minimal budget and very restricted space, the client wanted to make better use of a covered patio, a wooden gazebo, and the existing vegetation that merited preservation. The hope was to create a design that could provide outdoor access to nature for patients with the most limited mobility, as well as a serene gathering space for small groups, discreet conversations, and quiet moments for staff and visiting families. 

Following a site assessment, 2 rendered design concepts with precedent imagery were prepared and presented to the staff and residents in order to collect their feedback. The final concept that was chosen features multiple benches, a gathering space around a fountain where donors to the garden fund can memorialize loved ones with custom pavers, a gathering space under the canopy of the mature Shumard Oak, and the gazebo relocated to a better location for private conversations. Landscape plantings have been selected to perform across multiple seasons and were laid out following color-matched themes of Tranquility, Reflection, Comfort, Healing, and Peace. Hardscape material and site furnishing recommendations were made to assist the client in achieving paving surfaces that cause minimal difficulty for users in wheelchairs or with limited mobility. Valley Quest’s final task was to generate construction documents for contractors to bid on.