Copley Wolff Design Group, a landscape architecture and planning firm based in Boston, completed therapy trails for the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Charlestown Navy Yard. The design of the trails encourages rehabilitation and lets patients practice real-life physical challenges—such as walking on a sloped surface—within a safe, controlled environment.
The trails incorporate staggered stainless steel handrails, increased walk slopes, distance markers, interactive spinning rock elements for upper-body conditioning, varied walking surfaces, and granite stairs.
The therapy trails turn the patient’s recuperation toward the outdoors, bringing them closer to their return to their daily lives. The trails link to Boston’s Harborwalk, a 47-mile pathway lining the harbor.
Also on the Building Team for owner Partners Healthcare: Perkins+Will (architect), Thompson Consultants (MEP), vhb (CE), AKF Group (lighting designer), Haley & Aldrich (geotechnical engineer), and Walsh Brothers (CM).
Related Stories
Great Solutions | Nov 8, 2018
Public canopy system can be reconfigured by drones on the fly
The installation combines cyber-physical building materials constructed from lightweight carbon fiber filament with a collection of autonomous drones.
Great Solutions | Sep 28, 2018
When pigs fly? How about when cows float?
Merwehaven Harbor in Rotterdam will be home to the world’s first floating farm.
Great Solutions | Sep 17, 2018
Curtain walls go circadian
Catering to our natural circadian rhythm is a task designers are taking to heart.
Great Solutions | Aug 8, 2018
Warehouses rise up to serve downtown
Multistory industrial buildings provide the best chance at keeping up with the rapid growth of e-commerce in North America.
Great Solutions | Jul 13, 2018
Fungus may be the key to colonizing mars
A Cleveland-based architect and a NASA Ames researcher have a novel idea for building on Mars.
Great Solutions | May 14, 2018
It’s not Ripley’s loader, but this industrial exoskeleton makes physical labor a breeze
SuitX modules can be used separately or combined to form a full-body exoskeleton.
Great Solutions | Apr 5, 2018
IAQ monitoring for all
San Francisco startup Bitfinder debuts a commercial-grade version of its air quality monitoring system.
Great Solutions | Mar 9, 2018
Forget the wall thermostat: Wear one on your wrist instead
The Embr Wave Wristband acts like a personal thermostat and could become a user-friendly component in building energy-saving strategies.
Great Solutions | Feb 8, 2018
Stackable steel modules speed building core construction
With this patented, steel-and-concrete hybrid system, the service core will no longer be the schedule bottleneck on new construction projects.
Great Solutions | Jan 10, 2018
Blue lagoon technology brings the beach anywhere in the world
From coastal resorts to inner cities, these large-scale clear-water lagoons offer a slice of paradise.