Compare John's Stump with what he calls the "McDonald's Playhouse Features" below, which many landscape architects and healthcare administrators incorporate into therapeutic gardens. There is a tendency for designers to include plant labels, garden titles, folk art and abstract garden elements into therapeutic environments in order to engage patients and families. Sometimes, such features are appropriate, depending on the patient group. But in a hospice setting, the elements that facilitate emotional and spiritual well-being and support comfortable dying have a sense of ever-changing permanence and place.
John Siegmund is the most gifted contractor/designer/artist I know. He always sketches his designs on site, where he discovers an emotional connection to the endemic environment and interweaves it into his details. In my opinion, of the two-dozen healing environments I've visited, Bonner Healing Garden has the most distinct features, which are exemplary in their facilitation of hospice, family and community care. John continues to influence my design philosophy and I look forward to visiting with him again on my next pilgrimage to the Healing Garden!
