In finishing out an unusually shaped shell of the hospital’s third-floor west wing, the design challenges that arose sparked a collaboration among Boulder Associates Architects, hospital staff, former patients, community members and patient advocates. The project’s atypical, fish-like footprint required multiple levels of assessments and input to reach its creative breakthroughs in design and usage. That thoughtfulness included the art program, for which PS Art Consulting participated in a number of its own inventive solutions.

Lining the curved corridor are pieces chosen for their uplifting colors, interesting textures and lines, and even a few surprises. Doubling up on opaque glass doors as canvas, PS Art Consulting designed custom window films of native grasses and local botanicals. In each of the 28 patient rooms, white boards were incorporated into these films on the door to the toilet rooms, freeing up wall space for original, commissioned, framed fine art. An original piece used as the basis for a mural in the central space, surrounded by more large-scale landscape-inspired environmental graphics, including two custom murals on high-quality wall coverings.

Behind the nurses’ station, a wall of ceramic succulents by regional artist April Cannon introduces the shapes and colors of plants, a calming scene in an at-times stressful atmosphere. At another nurses’ station Georgia Rowswell fabric landscape incorporates fabric items donated by the staff, allowing employees to become a part of the art program.

The gallery effect is a most spectacular addition to this beautifully renovated floor, welcoming to all patients, visitors and staff — clearly a holistic effort by everyone involved for the ultimate mind-body-spirit connection.