Healthcare Campuses
Nature is not only nice to have, but it’s a have-to-have for physical health and cognitive functioning.” —Richard Louv
In 2013, Kristy DeGuire — president of DG2 Design — understood Richard Louv’s statement from a whole new perspective when she found herself staring at the campus of an area hospital far more than she had ever imagined. And she wasn’t there to gain insight for a design project, either.
Kristy and her husband Jeremiah were happy to add to their family of three. They were doubly happy to learn they were expecting twins. But the pregnancy did not go as hoped. The twins were delivered very prematurely at 24 weeks. And at only two days old, it was discovered one of the twins had a brain bleed, adding more risk to his already delicate life.
Recovering from birth and seeking a place that might help her mother’s heart to loosen from its grip of worry, Kristy visited the hospital’s outdoor areas frequently over the next five months as her twins grew and developed and recovered in the neonatal intensive care unit. Going outside was a reprieve from the sterile environment of the hospital halls.
That experience has indelibly influenced her approach to landscape architecture.
Hospitals, Medical Office Buildings, and Centers for Healing
Healing gardens, healing plazas, children’s gardens, therapeutic gardens — each serves to invite individuals in need of healing to reconnect with nature. Living and breathing in a sterile environment is often necessary for survival, but a reprieve from sterility can have a curative effect of its own.
Healing gardens offer more than a simple change of scenery for retirement community residents, long-term care residents, senior living residents, and hospital patients. Spending even as little as 20 minutes a day outside has been shown to improve health and overall well-being.
With DG2 Design, you can create an outdoor haven that is inviting and designed to meet the needs of everyone in need of healing.


Promoting Healing with DG2 Design
Accessibility for those with disabilities is never an afterthought. DG2 knows firsthand the difference a fully accessible park or recreation can make. Accessibility is integrated into every design to create a natural flow in the outdoor space that everyone can enjoy. A little more about DG2 Design:
- We are a WBE/DBE business with a team focused on excellence.
- Headquartered in Eureka, Missouri this award-winning planning and landscape architecture firm is led by landscape architect Kristy DeGuire.
- We are a small team with a values-first approach.
Our mission at DG2 Design is to restore, nourish, and connect nature and people. We do that through our designs which allow nature and architecture to exist as counterparts to a whole, functioning environment that calls to people to come and spend time there.
Every project begins with a conversation in which we listen closely to your goals, needs, and vision.