Critical Connections

Phase 2 of the Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Campus landscape project, the Hospital Entry Plaza, establishes a critical connection between the Piedmont Street residential area and Mosswood Park. This generous pedestrian-oriented greenway connects a neighborhood to a park while establishing a formal drop-off for visitors and patients to the hospital, lush with plantings and a grove of native live oaks, all above-structure to conceal the hospital services loading docks below.

Differing Orientations

The plaza links the hospital to the parking garage, the Central Utility Plant (CUP), and the emergency entry while serving as an impromptu public open space for events and informal gathering for a staff of over 500 people and the general public. The campus is composed of major planting volumes which clearly organizes the public spaces and screens vehicles from pedestrian-oriented areas. A linear path is established along a tree-lined promenade reconciling the grade difference between the vehicular-oriented Broadway Boulevard and the pedestrian-oriented Piedmont Street.

Bringing the Walls to Life

Substantial storm treatment plantings dominate the southeast corner of the site, handling the entire run-off of all four buildings and hard-scape while allowing for significant inundation and retention in a hundred-year storm event. INTERSTICE Architects designed the landscape to integrate substantial screening and living walls which surround the CUP, forming wellness conditions critical to the hospital’s mission to create an environment that not only cures disease but actively promotes health.

 

• CAMPUS/CULTURAL
• Landscape