Palmetto Baptist Parkridge Hospital
IRMO, SC
Palmetto Health (now Prisma Health) was building a new hospital in the nearby community of Irmo, SC. The vision for the new Palmetto Baptist Parkridge Hospital was to offer the ultimate in patient care innovation in a warm, welcoming environment.
Forcade created a hospital signage and wayfinding system and environmental graphics package that complemented the community of Irmo and enlivened the vision of Palmetto Health.
Laurel, oak and magnolia trees enrich the Southeast with beauty. Working with Palmetto’s stakeholders, we arrived at a unique approach to naming and visualization that embraced the natural splendor of the surrounding community. It was a highly attractive and welcoming way to make healthcare design more human.
We used the area’s indigenous trees to represent different regions within the interior of the hospital. Leaf and flower shapes graced large, colorful wall graphics and served as visual cues on wayfinding signs, reinforcing verbal directions given to patients, family and staff. It was a beautiful approach to healthcare wayfinding, which made the journey through the 224,000 square foot space effortless and enjoyable.
For the exterior, we included all the necessary information healthcare signage requires, but elevated the aesthetic with materials that matched the architectural palette of the new hospital. Each sign was anchored by an attractive stone base that provided patients, visitors and staff with a warm, welcoming feeling before they even entered the doors. The bases also served a more utilitarian purpose, elevating the signage to alleviate wear and tear from the groundskeeping crews.
Beyond the look and feel, we designed the exterior signage to be highly flexible and capable of easily accepting message changes within a day.
Taking a highly thoughtful and beautiful approach to healthcare design helped establish the new hospital quickly within its new community. Forcade’s intuitive and approachable design system was so successful that it even became the foundation for signage and wayfinding throughout Palmetto Health’s entire network of healthcare facilities.
