Blair Kamin’s article, “Comfort From Within” (Chicago Tribune 6/10/12), describes the Crown Sky Garden at the new Children’s Hospital of Chicago as a “healing garden”. Having gained certification from the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Healthcare Garden Design program, I can tell you that this garden is woefully short of what is required to this to be an effective healing garden for a children’s hospital. Unfortunately, the designer, Mikyoung Kim, seems to care more about how the garden will look in her portfolio rather than how it serves the user.
The primary focus of a healing garden is providing interaction with nature, i.e., seeing, touching, smelling, hearing. There may be bamboo trees but they are walled off. There are stones which can be touched. However, I would be more concerned about an injury lawsuit from someone slipping on an errant stone on the floor rather than a child throwing a stone. It’s a shame there couldn’t have been a more creative approach — perhaps a seasonal rotation of colorful plants to smell and touch, and a water feature to run your hand under.
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