Landscape Design | Warwick, RI

Blue Hill Sage With Backdrop Of Switchgrass And Kent Hospital Entry Sign

Entry sign to Kent Hospital's campus is colorful indicator of the low maintenance sustainable landscape approach now used throughout the facility. Blue Hill Sage with backdrop of Switchgrass brighten's Kent's entry sign.

Kent's Serenity Garden and other healing gardens offer peaceful respite from the busy hospital. Low maintenance plantings have require little care since becoming established.

Rain Garden With Native Plantings At Kent Hospital

Colorful and lush native plants frame the Breast Health Center's entrance (shown here in late spring) and require little maintenance once established.

Kent's Serenity Garden provides a peaceful, intimate, healthful setting for patient-staff interaction.

Kent Hospital's Breast Health Center Healing Rain Garden With Native Flowers, Grasses, Shrubs And Trees.

Kent Hospital's Breast Health Center healing rain garden provides an ever-changing mosaic of native flowers, grasses, shrubs and trees. The garden infiltrates roof runoff to comply with environmental standards.

Ledge Rock With Native Plantings Including Purple Aster In Front Of Kent Hospital Emergency Department

Transformation of Kent Hospital's campus to lower maintenance sustainable model began with master plan and early projects like the Emergency Department entrance. Existing ledge rock is preserved and enhanced with native plantings such as purple aster.

Kent Hospital's PETScan and Infusion Center Serenity Garden in early Summer. Planting provide privacy and shade on this formerly exposed site.

Native Purple Asters And Switchgrass In Warwick, Rhode Island

At Kent Hospital, native purple asters and switchgrass provide colorful, lush cover to even the toughest locations, like this parking lot island.

Embankment With Purple Phlox At Kent's PETScan And Infusion Center Serenity Garden In Early Spring.

Embankment to Kent's PETScan and Infusion Center Serenity Garden in early Spring.

Serenity Garden view toward Trowbridge Center prior to installation.

Serenity Garden At Kent Hospital, Warwick, Rhode Island

Located at Kent Hospital's PETScan and Infusion Center, the healing Serenity Garden provides intimate solace and peace to patients and their families.

Kent's Breast Health Center Rain Garden site was formerly covered with pavement.

Kent's Breast Health Center Rain Garden a few years after installation.

Kent's Serenity Garden site was previously paved for parking and loading.

Kent's Serenity Garden provides a lush and intimately scaled peaceful oasis for patients and their families.

Serenity Garden site view toward main hospital complex prior to installation.

Serenity Garden view toward main hospital complex.

Serenity Garden site view as former paved area for parking and loading.

Serenity Garden view shortly after installation.

Serenity Garden On Side Of Building Kent Hospital

Creeping flowers stabilize and enliven embankment leading up to healing Serenity Garden.

Embankment With Ornamental Grasses And Groundcovers

Kent Hospital's transformation to sustainable landscape approach features replacing lawn areas with low maintenance native grasses and groundcovers.

Tom's master planning for Kent's campus includes space for productive Staff Garden, which has been expanded a number of times due to popular demand for garden plots.

Entry walk to Kent's Breast Health Center is enlivened with spring-blooming Bluestar in rain garden. Many patients have commented on the soothing quality of this entryway.

Kent's Breast Health Center Rain Garden is enjoyed by patients and staff alike.

Kent Hospital's PETScan and Infusion Center Serenity Garden provides easily negotiable walking paths flanked by colorful, fragrant, and medicinal plants such as Thyme and Catmint.

Guided tour of Kent's Serenity Garden and other sustainable landscape areas.

The edge of Breast Health Center's rain garden is designed to screen and soften views to parking lots beyond using native grasses and trees.

Kent Hospital Campus
Warwick, RI

Client | Kent Hospital, Care New England

Winner of 4 Design and Sustainability Awards!

Healthcare Design Magazine, Landscape Architecture for Healing Environments Award (2014)
Healthy Hospital Environments in Rhode Island (H2ERI), Sustainable Operations Award (2013 & 2014)
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Environmental Merit Award (2012)

As Kent Hospital’s landscape architect and project manager for over a decade, Tom has guided the medical facility’s long-term transition from a conventional to more sustainable landscape model with an enhanced sense of place. Tom’s work encompasses campus-wide master planning initiatives and associated site-specific design efforts, construction oversight, and maintenance planning. This project has been recognized as a regional model for integrating wellness with environmental health.

Specific design work includes driveways, walkways, and plazas; a healing garden, a rain garden, and bioretention swales; signage and main frontage upgrades; disaster management planning, and conceptual planning for major expansion projects.

Also featured in a NEW BOOK about Therapeutic Landscapes:
Therapeutic Landscapes: An Evidence-Based Approach to Designing Healing Gardens and Restorative Outdoor Spaces

See this project highlighted on the Kent Hospital website:
Kent Hospital Breast Health Center Rain & Healing Garden

Project Highlights

Improved vehicular circulation and storm water management
Enhanced biodiversity and reduced maintenance needs
New Plaza of Honor for hospital donors features three prominent flag poles, donor walls, and plaque rock surrounded by rock gardens
Multi-sensory native planting design for healing garden at cancer center provides relief for patrons and staff while advancing hospital’s sustainability goals include passive stormwater infiltration
U.S. EPA recognition through site tours and webinar