Hospital Landscape Design

Dallas, Texas

In a joint partnership, Studio Outside and Ten Eyck Landscape Architects infused nature back into Dallas’ urban core with the restorative and adaptive landscape at the New Parkland Hospital.

Using the ecosystem and plantings of the Texas Blackland Prairie, the design team created a resilient landscape that promotes healing and celebrates the beauty of Dallas’ ecoregion.

Wildflowers, native grasses and other robust plants compose the hospital grounds and offer patients, visitors and hospital employees a lush and tranquil environment. The landscape architects created an iconic setting for the hospital and region. Along with its LEED Gold® certification, Parkland received the Distinguished Greenscape Project of the Year award from the STAR North Texas and the North Texas Corporate Recycling Association.

At the heart of Parkland’s landscape is the 2-acre Wellness Park that welcomes visitors to the main entrance. Inside the Wellness Park, a spiral path of native stone contrasts the orthogonal geometry found elsewhere on site and takes pedestrians on a journey to a place of solitude at the spiral’s core. There, they encounter the soothing sounds of a brimming water feature that mirrors the surrounding landscape.

With the hospital’s new location, its proximity to the nearby DART station gives people an accessible rout to the hospital. Meanwhile, the landscape’s public open spaces nurture friendliness and interaction and provide comfortable places for people to unwind. The Wellness Trail, the hospital’s natural trail system, along with an employee garden, a chapel garden and other outdoor spaces, organically establish a strong east-to-west framework that connects the entire campus.