There are numerous studies that demonstrate the healing properties of nature and landscaping. “Views of a Courtyard Affect Recovery Time” by Roger Ulric, for example, provides empirical evidence that views of landscapes, as opposed to views of barren space, benefits hospital patients by decreasing their recovery time, decreasing the need for pain medications, and more. Awareness of this effect and the holistic welfare of patients are ingrained into the culture of Sharp Healthcare in San Diego, California. Yet, the new hospital wing at Sharp Memorial created views from patient rooms to a barren emergency room rooftop. Their response was to commission the design of a green roof to create a more pleasant view from patients’ rooms; our firm was lucky enough to be selected for this project.

In response to the linear nature of the space and the fact that the roof is not be accessible to patients (instead they will look down onto the space from their rooms), we decided to depict a staff of music as our design theme, and let both landscape and music be our inspiration. We utilized Trex composite lumber for the frames and large planters to depict both treble and bass notes. After quite a bit of research we selected the first few bars of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony “Ode to Joy” as our inspiration. The ode, written in 1785 by German poet Friedrich Schiller, is “celebrating the brotherhood and unity of all mankind”. It was put to music by Ludwig van Beethoven as the final movement of his Ninth Symphony in 1824. Soon after the roof garden’s installation, a seriously injured woman was wheeled to her room’s window as she began to regain her strength. She looked down at the green roof and with a smile said, “That’s ‘Ode to Joy’; did they put that there for me?” This was a very gratifying story for us to hear. As it turns out, she is a retired music teacher.