McLaren Greater Lansing’s Sacred Space

Not Your Typical Sanctuary

After designing the new community hospital, Gresham Smith was tasked with creating a sacred space that would become the focal point of the organization’s spiritual care program. The client sought a place of reflection and worship that was much more than your typical hospital chapel or meditation room and featured a variety of spaces that embraced all denominations.

Research into the typology of sacred spaces over the centuries led the project team—comprised of staff from Gresham Smith’s Nashville and Chicago offices—to an understanding of both form and character for this building type. The process of iteration (exploring a series of potential solutions) revealed multiple ways in which to design a small, sacred space and guided the collaborative team to the optimal design solution.

A Symbolic Gesture of Prayer

MGL Sacred Space was ultimately inspired by the action of two hands coming together inward and then pressing upward in a gesture of prayer that creates an apex and upward-lifting form. For the Lansing community, this symbolic gesture represents hope, gratitude, reverence and respect.

Transitional Spaces

Our design solution separates the sacred space from the outside world by a series of transitional spaces—including an entry experience as picture above—that are both elemental and modest, while honoring inspirational forms and natural materials.

Fostering Inspiration & Reflection

In a twist of modern design, the program features an internal courtyard experience replete with a living wall, spaces that can be used for a multitude of functions, and a main area that depicts inspiration, reflection and spiritual gathering—all within a “simplistic” form.

Making the Ordinary Iconic

Complementing the new hospital, the innovative use of materials helps take the seemingly ordinary and makes it iconic. The building’s skin also helps create a unified exterior and a sense of purity in design as an emblematic reference to its program.

Enhancing the Human Experience

Welcoming all faiths, McLaren Greater Lansing’s Sacred Space cultivates a uniqueness that enhances the human experience. Along with the main sanctuary, the 2,115-square-foot program includes prayer niches, a reflecting courtyard, a connecting hospital corridor, a chaplain’s office, a consultation room and a garden for reflection and respite.