The Ellen S. Clark Hope Plaza was designed by the renowned architect and artist Maya Lin to provide a special place of respite and refuge for employees, patients and other visitors to Washington University Medical Center that is a leading center of research on the front of rare disease.

It’s design incorporates a harmonious blend of nature with an infinity fountain as a centerpiece. The plaza’s trees, grasses and wildflowers were specifically selected in collaboration with the Missouri Botanical Garden based on what’s present in a self-sustaining Missouri woodland habitat, and it’s a continually changing landscape that grows and develops over time.

The plaza’s sustainable design has achieved LEED certification, and Maya Lin was inspired “to create a place that would allow visitors who are coming here — many for very difficult medical situations — to be transported to a beautiful place that would give them a sense of comfort, peace and hope.