Respite On The Roof

A garden offers oasis from the ravages of cancer

HIGH ABOVE THE streets in Seattle's Cascade neighborhood near Lake Union is a healing garden designed to comfort cancer patients. People come from around the world for treatment at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, and they often stay for a time, along with their families, at the Pete Gross House on Minor Avenue North. Thanks to University of Washington landscape-architecture students, the center's roof is now an oasis for families enduring difficult days far from home.

With a gift from the Seattle Garden Club to seed other donations, associate professor Daniel Winterbottom and 18 of his students transformed a windy seventh-floor rooftop into a sheltered sanctuary. Winterbottom describes the fast-track project as "10 weeks of laughter and tears" in which his main role was to "manage the students' momentum." Pizza, he noted, was huge.

The design-build students, who completed the project in a single university quarter, had to schlep all the materials up and down stairs to the roof. As fragile residents undergoing bone-marrow and stem-cell transplants must be protected from any exposure to toxins, all the demolition debris had to be securely bagged before it was carried out. Garden elements were built off-site and bagged, along with all the soil, before being hauled up the stairs.

The weight of the trees and large planters was an important design consideration and required careful siting. The garden's rooftop location offered stunning city and water views, but also hot sun and fierce wind. The students built lattice fences to diffuse the wind, nestled seating into protected corners and laced an overhead arbor with vines for shade. Many Pete Gross House residents come from rural areas and aren't used to cities. So the intensely urban views are maximized in some areas of the garden but shut out in others to make a quiet retreat for those overwhelmed by big-city bustle.

Flexible spaces were a goal, so the 100-by-60-foot garden was divided into three distinct rooms. "People lose much of their ability to make choices when they're sick," explains Winterbottom. The garden was designed for patients to use as they like, whether it's to seek privacy or gather with friends and family.

One room is enclosed to feel as intimate as a living room, complete with cushioned couch and lightweight chairs to move about. The domestic aura of this space encourages relaxation and attachment, valuable qualities for patients and their families who may stay at the house for as long as six months.

There's an open lawn for games and play, with exciting views out to the Space Needle and the lake. The third room is a calm little woodland, shady with trees and lattice. This private corner is furnished with a glider and painted in serene shades of blue. It's a place for people to seek a quiet moment to read, cry, forget or write their feelings on a large chalkboard hung on the wall.

Color was the tool for creating depth and warmth. The garden hums in vibrant shades of magenta, pea green and barn red. "We wanted it to feel cheerful and to be a sensory experience that engages people and takes them away from the hospital and residential setting," says Winterbottom of the dynamic palette.

Deciduous trees and perennials emphasize nature's seasonality, in tune with patients and their families engaged in healing, growth and change. At the same time, plants with winter interest, wood, glass and stone are incorporated to attract people up to the rooftop in every season.

The students paid close attention to details. The wooden benches, painted bright pink on the inside, open to store pillows and hoses. Bamboo rustles in the wind, fragrant herbs fill the raised beds, and sedums are planted in "touch pots" to encourage stroking. Cushions comfort sore skin, metal pieces have rounded corners, and arbors shade patients sensitive to the sun. Winterbottom praises the garden's lively design and its home-like feel, saying "we kept clinical elements out — escape is a wonderful thing when dealing with cancer."

Valerie Easton is a Seattle freelance writer and contributing editor for Horticulture magazine. Her e-mail address is valeaston@comcast.net. Mike Siegel is a Seattle Times staff photographer.