St. Luke’s, is a historic hospital on the edge of San Francisco’s Mission district, expanded in 2018 with a new building and renovation of a large portion of its campus. The gateway is a new public plaza on Cesar Chavez Boulevard, the beginning of a spine through the site which connects the new hospital, the new MOB, and the rest of the hospital facilities. Several garden spaces were created along this spine, including a contemplative therapeutic garden in addition to more social garden spaces to accommodate hospital patients, visitors, and employees. The design is supported with bands of paving than run rhythmically through the pedestrian corridor, unifying the spaces and penetrating each garden and plaza and visually connected to the glazing of the hospital building. Some bands are accented with mosaic tile, while others feature a trough of grasses.

The movement and changing character of water through the site was a key element of its design. A pool of water flows into a native bosque, moving through cracks in the paving bands. The water theme continues in the upper plaza in the form of stormwater rain gardens that are connected with gravel runnels before finally reaching a riparian garden in the lower plaza. The hospital and associated site design respond to the historic San Jose Avenue corridor, enlarging the campus’ pedestrian realm, providing streetside vehicular dropoff, and preserving maximum flexibility for shaping and potentially connecting future buildings.