• Healing Garden

    Healing Garden

    San Francisco, California

  • Healing Garden

    Healing Garden

    San Francisco, California

This small terrace garden serves as a peaceful retreat for a San Francisco non-profit organization that addresses child abuse. Located on the second floor terrace of the Children’s Advocacy Center, the donor funded garden was designed as a flexible, multi-use space for lunch breaks, informal gatherings and organized events. The existing terrace posed a number of constraints to the design, including severe limitations on weight, extreme glare, no views and unsightly HVAC equipment. The focal point of the garden is a green wall, which provides a rich palette of plant material without the weight of traditional planters. A new, finely textured terrace surface coating cuts glare and visually unifies the space. Brightly colored café furniture enlivens the garden and allows for easy reconfiguration or removal for events while a teak bench flanked with small planters offers a shaded space to sit. A custom, lightweight, perforated metal screen conceals the HVAC equipment and provides a dynamic, colorful counterpoint within the space.