Hospital Wayfinding Solutions that Stand Out at UAB Medical West Hospital in Birmingham, AL

By Kurt Johnson Photography • September 20, 2024

“When you walk into this hospital it’s really jaw-dropping but in this really welcoming and warm way.”

Dr. Cynthia Brown, OBGYN, UAB Medical West

Healing can’t begin unless patients can reach their destination (preferably easily). So it’s not an understatement to say wayfinding should be at the top of the list when it comes to healthcare design.

Hospital wayfinding solutions include benefits like:

reducing patient frustration
ensuring the timeliness of care (especially during emergencies when every second counts)
allowing staff to focus on providing care rather than giving directions

These are all important reasons to consider wayfinding solutions from the very beginning of a healthcare facility’s construction. And UAB Medical West Hospital in Birmingham, AL, did exactly that.

“A place to go for wellness as opposed to illness.” – Keith Pennington, CEO, UAB Medical West

About 2 years ago, Medical West Hospital approached us about photographing local spring flora, unique to their area, to serve as a wayfinding solution for their new multi-story hospital.

Ginny Nicholson NCIDQ, Interior Designer at HKS developed the concept for this innovative project understanding the powerful impact of nature on the entire care team.

By combining tall windows with grand views of the surrounding landscape, an open floor plan, lots of natural light, and local nature imagery, Medical West was able to truly blur the lines between being outdoors and being inside its new wellness facility. And the result was nothing short of spectacular.

Catherine Brooks, interior designer at KPS Group, explained the vision for the new hospital:

“Our design intent was to bring nature indoors. With each level of the hospital representing different flora found in our region of Alabama, we used this as a means of bringing in color but also as a sense of wayfinding. Nature used throughout the building was a way to help calm patients, and family and connect to the beautiful site where our project is located.”

Kurt and associate photographer, Jerred Zegelis, made the almost 1,000-mile trip to Birmingham three times to ensure they captured the images required for this innovative project. Even though they had a list of the 9 flowers Medical West Hospital wanted to be photographed, they needed to make multiple trips since not all of the flowers were in bloom at the same time.

Kurt enlisted the help of Keith Turney, horticulturist in charge of the Kaul Wildflower Garden inside the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, to help determine when each flower would bloom and, more importantly, where to find them. Kurt and Jerred had a great time exploring Birmingham’s lush landscape and were grateful for such a great guide!

They even met up with KPS Group in the field to capture exactly what they were looking for in the imagery. The trips were successful in allowing us to provide images that fulfilled KPS Group, HKS, and UAB Medical West’s vision for their hospital wayfinding solutions.

“Having this very warm, natural feeling when you walk in is going to help the healing process.” – Keith Pennington, CEO, UAB Medical West

Of all the flowers we photographed for this project, capturing the elusive Cahaba lily was the most exciting and challenging.

According to the Cahaba River Society, the Cahaba lily is . . . “an aquatic flowering plant which grows only in Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina . . . . noted for the striking beauty of its three-inch-wide white flowers. The lily requires a very specialized habitat—swift-flowing water over rocks and lots of sun—and thus is restricted to shoal areas at or above the fall line.”

What did that mean for us?

It meant an afternoon learning how to canoe (let’s just say it’s much harder than it looks) so we could reach a gorgeous area in the center of the river where the flowers were blooming.

We didn’t notice the big storm heading our way until it was almost too late, but we were able to capture images of this beautiful, rare flower and get to shore just before the downpour.

With some battle scars (someone might have slipped in the water or almost fallen out of the canoe – we’ll never tell) and the memories of an adventurous afternoon, seeing the final outcome made this hospital wayfinding solution totally worth it!

“The photographed flora is truly one of the highlights of our project. It stands out against the white walls and allows each floor to have focal points that help patients feel they are surrounded by beauty and comfort. It exceeded our expectations.” – Catherine Brooks, Designer, KPS Group

The images served as navigational aids to enhance wayfinding so patients and visitors could easily look for a specific flower and color to reach certain areas of the hospital. Relying on visuals rather than only traditional signage made Medical West’s hospital wayfinding solution more intuitive and less stressful, especially for those unfamiliar with the hospital’s layout.

Medical West used a combination of wall protection by Inpro in high-traffic areas like nurses’ stations, laminated glass by Skyline Design which provided privacy for check-in stations and the ability for natural light to stream through in waiting areas, and vinyl wallcovering by National Solutions Wallcovering to round out the hospital wayfinding solution in exam rooms and lower traffic areas.

“All the structural and beauty of this really embodies to me what Medical West is, which is this beautiful community place that takes care of people. I’m so excited about walking in here to go to work every day. It makes me happy.” – Dr. Cynthia Brown, OBGYN, UAB Medical West

In the end, UAB Medical West Hospital and the community they serve were thrilled with the outcome and their experience working with the KJP team. Catherine Brooks described it as:

“Absolute professionalism mixed in with some fun that made the project memorable. We were able to go on the Cahaba River with Kurt and help him understand the type of images we were looking for. Afterward, Tori was extremely easy to work with to help narrow down our selections and enhance our images, and lastly, Carolyn was flexible with our desire to use additional images outside of what our original agreement allowed. This allowed our entire team to use the best images and the most images in our space, from framed artwork, to printed wallcoverings, wall protection and glass film. KJP was responsive and agreeable to any request we had.”

And lead visionary, Ginny Nicholson told us:

“We are really proud of this project. I think it’s one of our team’s best and the story of the photography is a huge part of what makes it special! Working with you guys was a dream and we will definitely be in touch for future opportunities! Thank you again for all of your passion and hard work. I’m so happy we got to know each other on this project!”

We had a blast on this project and were blown away when we made the trip last month to see it in person. Seeing what amazing designers like Ginny do with our work is sometimes the most exciting part! And seeing people react to the art in the space makes it all worthwhile.

We think Keith Pennington, CEO of UAB Medical West Hospital described the facility best when he said:

“It does not feel like a hospital and that was kind of our goal. As you walk through you’ll get more of a serene feeling and you get more of a wellness feeling and you get more of an inviting environment.”