Client: Kaiser Permanente

Overview

The six-story, 725,000 sq. ft. San Leandro Medical Center is built from a proven template design that maximizes natural light. Design elements include a meditation garden and art based on a cultural heritage theme with colors, textures and designs celebrating the diversity of the Southern Alameda County communities.

Goals

With "Cultural Heritage" chosen as the theme for the art program, the goals were to select artworks that refer to the rich cultures from all over the globe that are represented in this region. An art program in a healing environment is an expression of the mission of healthcare; to inspire a healthy quality of life through education, wellness, treatment and healing. It is the last layer of the interior and exterior design and gives meaning to architectural and design elements; appointing spaces, connecting areas of the facility with images that enhance the healing themes and emphasize the function of the facility as a place of care and comfort. Building a distinctive art program involves using all types of medium to give texture to the experience, as well as including many artists of the region to give it a personality so that the medical center reflects a sense of place.

Process

Artist, Penny Olson was commissioned to create the digital photographic murals inspired to celebrate the cultural heritage of the region. Olson created a 42' mural of global textiles, various diverse global garden digital murals that wind through the six-story hospital patient room towers, the fish and plant life of the San Francisco Bay in the Emergency Department, and the photographic murals of San Leandro regional scenes on the spine corridors of the hospital.