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help maintain a work-life balance,
as do scheduled events like wine
tastings.
Mixed media artist Shuli Sadé,
whose studio is in Jersey City, said
her large-scale public artworks
featuring local landmarks encourage
community in a variety of settings,
including health care. For instance,
“Aqua Data,” a piece with blue wave
imagery, was installed in 2016 at
the former Partners HealthCare in
Somerville, Massachusetts, and later
moved to Massachusetts General
Hospital. Thousands of people
walk by the work every morning,
Sadé said, and “it gives me such a
great pleasure to know that it’s a
respite for the people who are going
upstairs.”
Her art isn’t just soothing — it
ensures people don’t get lost.
“Urban Renewal,” installed in 2023
at Montefi ore Einstein Advanced
Care in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards
neighborhood, uses bright primary
colors to direct people. That can
mean blue artwork that guides them
to the blue room, Sadé said, citing
the importance of art in health care
facilities “because it’s so confusing,
especially in hospitals.”
Jennifer Ellis-Rosa, a workplace
strategist at Gensler, said she
thinks about wellness in terms of
accommodating all the users of a
space. She’s passionate about the
topic because her college roommate
had muscular dystrophy, “and I had
to watch her experience the world
and the different experiences that
she had to overcome.”
From the beginning of a project, she
said, different types of users need
to be involved to help inform the
design. For instance, the Morristown
coffee shop known as Ethan & the
Bean, which employs people with
autism and intellectual disabilities,
was designed to be welcoming to the
employees and to the community.
The wide space between tables
“was extremely intentional” to
accommodate people in wheelchairs
or who were training or using guide
dogs, since The Seeing Eye school is
nearby. The point is for “anybody to
be able to traverse the space easily.”
Including nature in a space can also
help people’s wellbeing. Ellis-Rosa
said Gensler recently designed a
project with a plant wall that was
“not only beautiful to look at, but
it actually helped air quality in the
space.” And spaces without heavily
patterned fl ooring or unnecessary
level changes are easier for some
users to navigate.
“There’s really a plethora of options
that could be explored,” she said.
NK Architects’ Hsu closed the panel
with her thoughts on art in health
care spaces. She said interior design
is not just about creating beautiful
spaces but “how we can impact
outcomes in those spaces,” like
shortening distances so nurses can
spend more time with a patient.
The fi rm uses evidence-based design,
which relies on data and empirical
research to show how design can
improve health. For instance, Hsu
said, the Journal of the American
Medical Association found that
exposing patients to nature-based
artwork led to a 30 percent reduction
in their anxiety levels.
Those principles came into play
for the new eating disorder unit at
Robert Wood Johnson University
Hospital Somerset in Somerville. Hsu
said the team used a nature theme
throughout, relying on natural light
and highlighting a circle motif as
“a symbol of wholeness and unity.”
The lighting is dimmable to match
patients’ circadian rhythms.
The pediatric day department
at Morristown Medical Center
uses colorful wall coverings as
“distraction graphics” while a child
is being examined. In the behavioral
health unit, a child can use a remote
to change the color of the room,
taking some control over their space,
Hsu said.
The point, according to the panelists,
is to design with a larger goal in
mind.
“How do we create spaces that
actually help people to heal?” Hsu
asked. “And in those same spaces,
how do we make it better for people
to work in them?” RE
Marlaina Cockcroft is a freelance
writer based in New Jersey.
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