Graduation Project-Landscape to Heal

Landscape to Heal Yaozhu Wang

Champlin Shores-A Typical Assisted Living If you visit some assisted livings, you will easily find their shortages in common: 1. Lacks gardens-which are known to be healing 2. Has a large paved parking lot near the entrance.

3. People can hardly get access to green space.

4. There are not enough outdoor amenities for elderly people to exercise. Most of their activities take place indoors.

As a typical assised living in Minnesota, Champlin Shores has similar problems. So how can it be changed to provide a pleasant environment for the seniors?

My Big Idea

As a landscape architecture student, I want to change this situation by thinking of the entire site of an assisted living center as a landscape for healing and designing a linked series of gardens, paths, and a place for gardening.

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of Total US Population

Population>=65 (millions)

The population of adults age 65 and over is growing rapidly in America, as the Baby Boomer generation ages.

Research shows that healing gardens for elderly people can effectively reduce their stress, promote an optimistic mood, lower blood pressure and promote a more active lifestyle.

However, not many assisted living centers have healing gardens and well-designed places and paths.

US Population 65 Years and Older

Now

After Design

Differences between Assisted Living Facilities and Nursing Homes Although both assisted living facilities and nusing homes are for elderly people, they are different from Assisted living facilities are not licensed to give nursing care. They provide housing to seniors who wish to receive custodial care in a more home-like atmosphere. Living quarters in assisted living facilities often consist of private rooms that can house the residents’ own furnishings and decorations.

Assisted living facilities offer meals, social activities to the residents.

They also help with bathing and dressing. The residents have more freedom to go outside.

Not licensed to give nursing care

Assisted Living Facilities

Nursing Homes Residents in nursing homes are watched day and night. Twentyfour hour skilled nursing services are available from licensed nurses.

People need more care compared to assisted living facilities. Residents typically share a room and are served meals in a central dining area unless they are too ill to participate. The cost is higher.

More like hospitals Skilled nursing facilities

Mobile

Less mobile

Have more freedom to go outside

Be watched day & night

Site Location

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Champlin, Minnesota

Riv er

Champlin

Hennepin

Hwy 169

Minnesota

Minneapolis

Champlin Shores Champlin Shores is an assisted living apartment which located in Champlin, Minnesota. It is north of Minneapolis, about half an hour drive from the Twin Cities. It is near Highway 169, so it is easy for people from other cities to get there. It has a pond in the backyard. The neighborhood is quiet. It is adjacent to a retirement community named Mill Pond Gables. Currently, a path connects these two senior living apartments.

M iss iss ipp iR ive r

Mill Pond

Champlin Shores

Nursing Homes and Assisted Livings in Champlin

There are only 3 assisted livings or nursing homes in Champlin city. Elderly people in this city who needs help in their daily lives rely greatly on Champlin Shores.

Apartments for elderly people

Parks in Champlin Donie Galloway Park

Paul Wethern Park

Rosewood Park

Morningside Park Heights Park

Champlin currently has approximately 300 acres of City owned park land at 32 locations.

It is also important to note that there is currently approximately 800 acres of the Elm Creek Park Reserve located within the City of Champlin boundaries.

Richardson Park Elm Creek Terrace Park Reynolds Park Josephine Nunn Park

Chandler Park Doris a Kemp Park Veterans Memorial Park Oak Creek Park Shores Park

Although the city has a mature park system, people in Champlin Shores are isolated with it due to the busy traffic around the building.

West River Park Emery Farms Park Andrews Park Lakeside Park Pines Park

Harold H. Johnson Park Highpointe Park Evergreen Park

Northland Park

Woodlawn Park Bartusch Park Jerry Ruppelius Park Northwoods Park

Brittany Park

Oxbow Creek Park

Why Champlin Shores?

• The garden can be used by all sorts of people.

Residents

Garden

• Create feelings of getaway.

Visitors

Public

• The primary users are elderly people with good health.

• Have diverse flora and fauna species.

Walking around Champlin Shores There are no pedestrian walkways on the north side of Hayden Lake Road. This means that if you can’t drive and you want to take a walk from Champlin Shores, you have no other choices but walking along the path which leads you to the community. The nearest park would be Reynolds Park, which is 0.8 mile away. As the busy road is a big barrier, people may just want to stay in the neighborhood.

Barrier

No pedestrian walkway

Driving around Champlin Shores There is a big commercial hub including a post office, grocery stores, and restaurants in the south-west corner of Highway 169 and Hayden Lake Road. It is about one minute drive from Champlin Shores. The nearest big park would be Elm Creek Reserve. It needs 8 minutes to drive from the assisted living apartment to there.

Golf Course

Site

Post Office Library Park Reserve

Park

Theatre

Health Clinic

Park

Shade Analysis Mar. 22 10:00 AM

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Shade analysis is important to this design. As most of the design area is located in the north side of the building, it will be influenced largely by shadows. From the above pictures, we can come to a conclusion that a strip area in the north side of the building is in shade all year round.

This will affect the location of the outdoor patio, the plant species, etc.

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The climate in Champlin city is similar to Twin Cities. From May to September, there is no snowfall, and the average temperatures are comfortable for people to go out. For the rest of the year, the residents will enjoy themselves inside the building viewing the garden.

Residents in Champlin Shores

These assisted living apartments have 2 functions. Assisted living is the primary function of the building, and there is a small area for memory care. Assisted living residents have the keys for the building and their rooms, and they are free to go inside and outside. Currently there are 109 assisted living residents. Most of them are in their 80s, and most of them need walkers or wheelchairs.

The memory care portion of the building is locked. It has its own fenced garden. There are 19 memory care residents. All of them are in their early to middle stage of memory loss.

Amenities in Champlin Shores

Indoor gathering space

Outdoor patio for dining

Indoor gathering space

Some bedrooms have a good view of the backyard

Outdoor Environment in Champlin Shores

The environment around Champlin Shores was designed by Amcon in 2001. Mill Pond and the stormwater pond have more natural value. Spontaneous plants can be found in those areas. The existing trees in between Champlin Shores and Mill Pond Gables were preserved. Few people use the trail around the building.

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Activities in Champlin Shores For assisted living residents: There is an activity calendar on the official website. A volunteer leads everyday activities, including fit exercise, spelling games, TV Worship, card games, shopping trips, etc. Big events with live music are always held on Friday nights. Residents are allowed to keep pets. A walking club walks along the emergency path around the building twice a week. It is important to improve the environment for two reasons: to provide a beautiful view for residents in the building and to inspire them to go out.

The dining room is located in the first floor, and it has a good view of the backyard and Mill Pond. An outdoor patio allows the residents to enjoy the nice weather when eating in summer.

Trail in the Backyard

Outdoor Patio

Walking Club Route

A middle school student perform several musical pieces to the residents in Champlin Shores

It's Never 2 Late (iN2L) All the residents share this computer to learn everything they are interested in.

Activities in Champlin Shores For assisted living residents:

Activities in Champlin Shores For memory care residents: The memory care part located on the first floor of the southeast wing of the building. It is locked. There is also a detailed, day-today activity calendar. A coordinator leads it all day long. Residents are allowed to keep pets. They can walk their dogs in the fenced garden. The garden also has some raised planting beds, but nobody is using them.

Memory Care Wing

Fenced garden for memory care residents

Fenced garden for memory care residents

Outside the fenced garden

Activities in Champlin Shores For memory care residents:

Site Analysis-Topography

Champlin Shores has a big stormwater pond in the backyard. A stormwater pipe drains the water from the pond to Mill Pond. The dramatic topography makes it difficult to design healing gardens for elderly people, since they need a level area.

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Site Analysis-Topography

Site Analysis-View

I selected focal points for design work based on the windows and the topography. The stormwater pond, the trees on the bank of Mill Pond, the parking lot at the entry area, and the grove between Champlin Shores and Mill Pond Gables became main focal points.

Focal Points

Site Analysis-Existing Problems

• Entry area is one of the most important places in the property. It is now only acting as a parking lot.

• 15 feet deep stormwater pond in the backyard, filled with spontaneous plants.

• A strip of space on the north side of the building is shady all year round.

• A walking club uses the emergency trail often, but the trail is not welcoming. No attractive nodes along the trail.

• Although Champlin Shores is adjacent to Mill Pond, the trees on the edge of the pond and the emergency trail are barriers preventing people from seeing the pond.

Design Goals • Create a series of linked gardens that will promote healing and wellness.

• Enhance opportunities for outdoor activities for residents, visitors, and staff at Champlin Shores • Welcome the public to be involved in the garden, while at the same time separating the public from the private • Build connections between the assisted living facility, the general neighborhood, and Mill Pond Gables • Make good use of the natural resources nearby

Design Considerations • Elderly people need to be watched. Set aside areas for their relatives to stay.

• Avoid stairs. Make the site ADA accessible.

• The view of nature and green plants can reduce pain. Positive distractions (filling bird feeders) may decrease the anxiety that invariably accompanies medical treatment.

• Curved lines can have a better effect on healing, compared to straight lines.

• Consider applying horticultural therapy in that it helps improve memory, cognitive abilities, task initiation, language skills, and socialization.

• Create the feeling of a getaway.

• Seating with armrests is critical.

• Provide elderly people comfortable spaces to watch other people, since they enjoy this activity.

• Avoid distorted depth perception

Master Plan 1 Labyrinth

6 Public Garden

2 Sensory Garden

7 Boardwalk

3 Social Garden

8 Staff Garden

4 Gazebo

9 Memory Care Garden

5 Playground

10 Welcome Garden 11 Seasonal Garden

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Site Users, Programs and Circulation

The above shows a range of garden areas and paths with different programs for different users.

Residents Friends Visitors Public

Stormwater Management The topography in the backyard is dramatic. By making part of the backyard level, seniors who cannot walk on a slope will be able to use this ADA accessible garden.

The topography acts as a useful tool to separate the public from the private.

Elderly people also benefit from the high elevation.

They can have a good view to Mill Pond and the activities of the public, whereas the public can hardly see them.

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848ft

Part of the stormwater pond is filled. Compensations are made by creating raingardens on other parts of the site.

Design Details

General Healing Garden Design Considerations: • Design with flexibility. Set aside an area for outdoor events.

• Maximize the green area for seniors to view • No stairs in the whole garden. The biggest slope shouldn’t exceed 5%. It is wheelchair and walker accessible.

• The path should be at least 6 feet wide.

• Provide abundant benches with armrests with ample shade. These places could also be social gathering spaces.

6-8 feet

Healing Garden 1 Labyrinth The purpose of building a labyrinth in the backyard is to give the users opportunities to restore mental focus and to meditate. A unicursal labyrinth which is one continuous path on a two-dimensional plane is a good fit for a healing garden. A completely paved labyrinth can also become a perfect spot for elderly people to practice walking.

The labyrinth is built near the back door, so that people can get to this fun place easily. 2 benches are provided for relatives to watch the seniors. The retaining wall around the labyrinth is 4 feet tall.

Boxwoods are planted around it as a fence to protect the elderly people.

The width of the path in the labyrinth is 2'4", which is enough for seniors with walkers or wheelchairs.

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Healing Garden 1 Labyrinth

Healing Garden 2 Sensory Garden Sensory experiences in the garden can be uplifting or relaxing. It will simultaneously engage 3 senses-touch, smell, and sight. The purpose of this sensory garden is to create the right nourishing outdoor environment for elderly people. It is also a place for socializing.

Criteria of Selecting Plants • Nontoxic and without thorns • Old-fashioned plants that can recall pleasant childhood memories • Plants to touch and smell should be easily reachable • Have features such as fragrant smell, unique shaped flowerhead, can attract pollinators, etc.

• The plants have a range of bloom time so that the garden would be attactive from spring to autumn Plant Species Hydrangea

Weigela

Wood Sage

Viburnum

Juniper

Dwarf-winged Burning Bush

Orange Cornflower

Boxwood

Yerrow

Karl Foerster Grass

Japanese Tree Lilac

Hosta

Planting Plan of Sensory Garden

Healing Garden 2 Sensory Garden

Healing Garden 3

Social Garden with Horticultural Therapy Horticultural Therapy Horticultural therapy is a process through which plants, gardening activities, and the innate closeness we all feel toward nature are used as vehicles in professionally conducted programs of therapy and rehabilitation. People who participated in directed social horticulture activites in a garden have the highest sense of hopefulness. They feel optimistic and at peace while outside in the garden and working with plant-related materials. Horticultual therapy shifts their focus to the present. They feel significant increases in “psychological wellbeing�, and positive effects are shown on mood and heart rate. It also provides opportunities for social interaction as well as horticultural activities at the same time.

Raised bed gardens are designed as a semicircle, with some benches on the opposite side for relatives to watch. This form is covenient for people to talk to each other, and also easy for the volunteer to lead horticultural activites. The outdoor chairs and tables are movable. Big events can be held in this area. The pavement change leads people to the gazebo and horticultural therapy area.

The gazebo gives people a good view of plants and satisfies their needs of watching other people to relax, and at the same time the raised level ensures their privacy.

Gazebo

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Healing Garden 3

Social Garden with Horticultural Therapy

Healing Garden 3

A View from the Gazebo

Healing Garden 4 Playground The playground is located on a vacant property, connecting the neighborhood and the entrance of the backyard of the assisted living facility by a path. This playground is designed mostly for the grandchildren of the residents in the assisted living, but children from the neiborhood are also welcome. It is 70 feet away from the building.

With the fountain in the playground acting as a noise screen, the residents will not be bothered by the use of the playground.

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Healing Garden 5 Butterfly Garden Butterfly Garden is within the assisted living apartment property, but most of the users will be people from the public. It is now a big stormwater pond. After redesign, it will be 10 feet lower than the gazebo. Pollinator-friendly plants are introduced to this area. People from the healing garden can watch the activities in this garden, whereas people from the public cannot see the healing garden. By designing with the dramatic topography, the assisted living residents are perfectly divided from the public area.

Main Plants Goals: • Detain stormwater when big rainfall comes • Attract pollinators (butterflies, bees) • The habitats change throughout the seasons and provide beauty and inspiration for the residents.

Red-osier Dogwood

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Joe Pye Weed

Goldenrod

Milkweed

Big Bluestem

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865ft

855ft Rainbow trail

Butterfly garden Stormwater pond

Segmental retaining wall

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Healing Garden 5 Butterfly Garden

Healing System Rainbow Trail Walking has been shown to ease depression. A loop with open sightlines minimizes confusion and fear of being lost. The assisted living has a walking club, which takes the emergency trail around the building as their exercise path. They go for a walk using the trail twice a week. Beautifying the trail can not only emprove the environment around the building, but more importantly, can encourage the residents from the walking club to go further, and provide a better view for the people inside.

After you get out of the backdoor, you will experience scences like those below:

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Healing System Rainbow Trail

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Boardwalk

Segmental retaining wall

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The trail doesn’t have any stairs, and the slope is less than 5%. Thus, people with walkers and wheelchairs are welcome.

Outdoor patio

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Mill Pond

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Segmental retaining wall

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Healing System Rainbow Trail

Layout of the seating and the bird feeders

Along the trail, abundant outdoor chairs are placed to ensure the seniors would not get too tired. Seating with armrests helps people rise from and gently ease down into the seat.Bird feeders are set on site as a positive distraction for the elderly people and an attraction for the birds.

Seat Dimensions

35.5" 16.5"

26"

48" 23"

Outdoor Chairs Bird Feeders

Healing System Rainbow Trail Now acting as an emergency route, the trail is not welcoming for pedestrians. By changing part of the pavement pattern, the elderly people will feel more comfortable when walking along it, and may be willing to use it more often.

Pavement Pattern

Granite Concrete

Healing System Rainbow Trail

Healing Garden 6 Memory Care Garden

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The memory care residents live on the first floor of the southwest wing of the building.

They have their own fenced garden.

Surrounded by a white fence, the garden now has a tiny lawn, some raised bed planters and a patio with 2 sets of table and chairs. Vines can obscure the fence and provide a layer of visual appeal. More raised bed gardens are added in this area so that they can hold horticultural therapy activities for all 19 residents.

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Raised Bed Garden Dimension

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Healing Garden 7 Welcome Garden The entry space now is filled with 16 parking spaces and a flag pole. It is one of the focal points but it is boring. By moving the parking spaces from center to sides, a raingarden is set aside in the center, which will be an attraction. The pervious pavement and the raingarden will reduce stormwater runoff and provide a beautiful changing display of plants and water. 2 chairs are put in front of the entrance, so that elderly people can sit and wait for their friends or relatives.

Planting soil Filter fabric Gravel pipe bed Perforated pipe connecting to basin or stream outlet

Open gravel base Open gravel stone

Healing Garden System

The whole new landscape becomes a healing garden which will improve life for residents, staff, visitors, and whole neighborhood.

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Li, Qing. "Effect of Forest Bathing Trips on Human Immune Function." Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine (Environ Health Prev Med), 2009, 9-17.

Marcus, Clare Cooper, and Naomi A. Sachs. Therapeutic Landscapes: An Evidence-based Approach to Designing Healing Gardens and Restorative Outsdoor Spaces. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2013.

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"Senior Living in Champlin Minnesota." Brookdale Senior Living Solutions. Accessed May 10, 2016. https://www.brookdale.com/ communities/emeritus-champlin-shores/.

"Sensory Gardens." EDIS New Publications RSS. Accessed May 10, 2016. https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ep117.

"Students Design Fine Parking Lot for Sustainable Water Management." Sustainability Syracuse University. Accessed May 10, 2016. http://sustainability.syr.edu/students-design-fine-parking-lot-for-sustainable-water-management/.

"Vifah Marisol Garden Bench." Walmart.com. Accessed May 10, 2016. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Vifah-Outdoor-2-Seater-HenleyBench/21874048.

Winterbottom, Daniel M., and Amy Wagenfeld. Therapeutic Gardens: Design for Healing Spaces. London: Timber Press, 2015 "West Union Iowa Green Streets Pilot Project." Conservation Design Forum. Accessed May 10, 2016. http://www.cdfinc.com/Green_ Streets.