Mosaic Community Health
Location: Bend, OR
Project Partners
Architect: Hacker Architects
Mosaic Community Health, a nonprofit medical organization, sought a large centralized health facility on a large empty lot adjacent to its main campus building on the east side of Bend, Oregon. The design emphasizes a wellness-focused, regenerative site promoting physical, mental, and whole-body health, with strong connections to existing facilities and the broader community.
SZABO Landscape Architecture transformed a degraded site into ample landscape areas, including large landscaped islands in the parking lot and a loop walk that meanders around the building and through parking. This approach preserves an existing rock outcropping in the northwest corner while integrating parking around it, communicating healing not only for people but also for the landscape in an interior Bend location.
Initial inspiration derives from Central Oregon’s geological fractures, such as Crack in the Ground, a volcanic fissure where breaks allow light and moisture into darker areas, fostering vegetation growth. Building angles open at the ends to echo this, with site planning ensuring a response to project goals like connectivity to existing facilities for staff and patients.
The site grades drop 4–5 feet from street frontage to the building's finished floor elevation, which the design leverages for connections to the right-of-way and community. Building orientation creates microclimates with ample sun exposure while avoiding overly hot southern courtyards, and a pass-through courtyard from east to west links landscaped exterior entrances.
Predominantly native plant palettes transition to more ornamental, lush plantings near east and west entries at lower elevations, becoming drought-tolerant and less manicured toward site edges. Paving, seat walls, furnishings, and modular detailing extend seamlessly from exterior plazas into the building's interior and glazing-rich courtyards, fostering an indoor-outdoor feel with natural light, pause spaces, and lunch patios. Contemporary plaza detailing features softer curves to balance the building's harder angles.
