Client: Kaiser, HOK, and A.R.T. Consulting Services
Location: Redwood City, CA, United States
Completion date: 2014
Artwork budget: $300,000
Project Team
Artist
Nita Winter
WinterBadger Collection
Artist
Rob Badger
WinterBadger Collection
Art Consultant
Suzanne Frazer
A.R.T. Consulting Services
Architect
Marianne Miller
HOK
Overview
A major hospital commission by Suzanne Frazer of A.R.T. Consulting Services and Kaiser Permanente’s new (2014) Redwood City Medical Center: Artists worked closely with all design and fabrication parties, and created new, high resolution “Redwood” themed work for the seven, 8’ x 20’ translucent, “eco-resin” lobby panels, to fulfill the design’s concept and needs.
For all four project phases, a total of 34 photographic images (from their extensive photographic library, or new project specific work) by fine art/conservation photographers Rob Badger and Nita Winter, were chosen for permanent installation in the architecture of Kaiser’s new hospital, designed by HOK.
Goals
The primary goal: bring regional nature indoors. An integral design language is evident throughout the project – the landscape, building and interiors - all counter-balancing the highly technical and clinical aspects of the facility and medical equipment. Given the unique coastal climate and environment of Northern California, critical to the survival of the native Coastal Redwood ecosystem, the redwood tree and the members of its community, are fitting conceptual design metaphors for Kaiser’s new Redwood City hospital. Highlighted are fresh, natural materials, textures, and colors inspired by a walk through a redwood forest. Careful integration of art and local photographic images furthers the design concept, culminating in a project that eliminates any reference to institutional, sterile healthcare designs of the past. The images of nature were multipurpose:
1. support Evidence Based Design by bringing nature indoors
2. follow a redwood forest theme where possible
3. support color coding of each floor. To assist visitors and patients in navigating the hospital each floor was individually color coded. The 8’ high by 20’ wide translucent panels in the main entrance lobby needed to represent a redwood forest environement. The six floors above the main lobby employed a specific color/ theme.
Process
Suzanne Frazer of A.R.T. Consulting Services was hired by Kaiser Permanente two years before the opening of the hospital to find artwork to fulfill HOK's design concept. Suzanne recognized the quality and variety of images in the WinterBadger Collection's photo library, our ability to create large digital files for the manufacturers and our willingness to work closely with her and her clients. She decided to award us the full commission. Only working with one art team rather than many different artists made the communication and quality control much simpler. We were also able to offer a cohesive look throughout the building. New images were created when needed. The team making the final decisions included Suzanne, the artists Rob Badger and Nita Winter, and representatives from Kaiser and HOK. We created match prints for the two manufactures: 3-Form and Marlite. We also attended meetings with all parties to review printed product samples until the samples closely matched the original prints. The final results were stunning.
Additional Information
Seen here are the lobby dividers manufactured by 3-Form. They include: seven 8' x 20' translucent lobby dividers were eco-resin, Shown in other project listings are the 9' square wildflower abstracts found in 120 patient rooms and 11 opaque eco-resin 2H x 4W' panels in the ED corridor. Marlite manufactured the laminated wall panels (up to 15' wide) which hung behind the nurses stations. Due to the limitation of 6 images per project the patient rooms, ED Corridor and wall panels can be seen on other Kaiser project listings.