Ellen S. Clark Hope Plaza at the BJC Institute of Health

The Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri

The Washington University School of Medicine, client
Maya Lin, artist
Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, landscape architect

In this busy urban medical campus, the plaza offers respite to staff and patients as they pass through, sit quietly or take in the view from above. Lighting is integrated into Maya Lin’s artwork—a reflecting pool on which floats a disc filled with luminous “stars.” Landscape lighting promotes nighttime observation from surrounding buildings, but is carefully shielded so as not to obscure views from the ground of the actual night sky.