The evidence has been clear for decades: access to nature improves health outcomes. Patients recover faster. Staff experience less burnout. Families feel less overwhelmed. Anxiety decreases. A view of a garden, a short walk outside, a quiet bench beneath a tree — these are not amenities. They are part of the care environment.

DG2 Design designs healthcare landscapes and healing gardens that take that evidence seriously. Environments that meet rigorous programmatic and operational requirements while genuinely serving the people who move through them every day.

A healing garden is not a green surface between the parking lot and the front door. It is an intentional outdoor space designed to reduce stress, invite restoration, and give patients, families, and caregivers a place to step away from the clinical environment without leaving the campus.

At the Siteman Cancer Center at Northwest HealthCare in Florissant, Missouri, DG2 Design designed a healing garden semi-enclosed by a curving brick wall and pergola, anchored by a large shade tree, and planted with a diverse palette of seasonal species. The garden is complemented by commissioned artwork from noted local artists Cbabi Bayoc and Jessica Hitchcock, grounding the space in the cultural life of the north St. Louis County community it serves. Four native bioretention basins on the site filter stormwater from the parking lots, extending the project's environmental stewardship beyond the garden walls.

For the BJC Children’s South County Specialty Care Clinic, DG2 Design collaborated with Archimages to design an entrance landscape and outdoor environment that eases pediatric patients’ and families' anxiety from the moment they arrive. Bold color, generous plantings, and thoughtful spatial sequencing create an atmosphere that is simultaneously energetic and calming — communicating to children and their caregivers that this is a place designed with them in mind. Staff spaces were designed with equal care, providing restorative outdoor access that supports well-being and reduces the cumulative stress of healthcare work.

Healthcare campuses present a particular design challenge: high traffic, complex site logistics, demanding programmatic requirements, and an institutional scale that can easily overwhelm the human experience. Sustainable landscape design is a meaningful response to all of those pressures.

The master plan and construction documents for Progress West Medical Center and its Data Center in O’Fallon, Missouri — completed by Kristy DeGuire before establishing DG2 Design  — achieved LEED Gold certification through a comprehensive suite of green technologies: bioswales, greenscreens, reestablished prairie areas, LED lighting, permeable surfaces, native plantings, and a constructed wetland. The project demonstrated that mission-critical healthcare and data center facilities can be designed with both ecological responsibility and long-term performance in mind.

DG2 Design has a deep working relationship with Great Rivers Greenway and has collaborated with municipalities, counties, MoDOT, and federal agencies on trail and greenway projects across the

Healthcare landscape architecture requires more than design skill. It requires an understanding of infection control requirements, patient privacy, operational logistics, and the institutional approval processes that govern construction on hospital campuses. It requires the ability to collaborate closely with architects, civil engineers, and facility managers over long project timelines. And it requires genuine sensitivity to the people who will use these spaces — often at the most vulnerable moments of their lives.

DG2 Design brings all of that to every healthcare engagement, along with a track record of completed projects across the St. Louis region.

region. We understand the funding landscape, the right-of-way process, and the stakeholder dynamics that make complex trail projects succeed — or stall.