“The Edmonds community was founded through the logging industry,” Uyesugi said. “It was an old shingle mill town. As it grew, it became a family town with multiple generations.”
At the clinic, “Some of the landscape features you see are sort of reminiscent of that shingle mill culture,” Uyesugi said. “We used existing trees that were moved as pieces of art in the landscape. We milled down these existing trees into slabs of cedar that are stacked in the landscape.”
Boom logs and historic photos of the region are prominently displayed in the lobby as part of the local décor.
The entrance and public concourse also accommodate an emergency department, with its Level IV trauma center, as well as centers for diagnostic imaging, urgent care and 29 exam rooms, all serving as the new front end of the existing 217-bed acute-care hospital.
With an easy walk from the parking area and its drive-up and drop-off configuration, “this new addition created a new front door” for the hospital, said interior designer Heather Nye. The furnishings create “a small safe haven, a destination for people to meet—a place where people can get a flu shot and an espresso,” Nye said.