Healing Amid Nature

Research has shown that being in nature confers physical health benefits, including lowering blood pressure and boosting the immune system, not to mention mental health help. That’s why California’s Montage Health Ohana campus—a behavioral health center for children and youth, which opened in December—is enveloped by oak trees, rosemary, and lavender plants. Floor-to-ceiling windows mean that 94% of the 16-resident facility (which also has an extensive outpatient program) offers views of hills and mountains, a stark contrast to typically austere clinics. “A lot of those spaces are institutional, cold, and uncomfortable,” says Jonathan Ward, firmwide design leader at NBBJ, which designed the campus for Montage Health. “So we thought, ‘Let’s put nature as the centerpiece.’”