Most people avoid hospitals, unless they work in one or have a medical emergency. After seeing the gem that is the Ministry Door County Medical Center (MDCMC) in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, this may change.
The facility, which lies between the shores of Green Bay and Lake Michigan, is an acute care, critical access hospital that traces its roots back more than 100 years to its founders, the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother. Today, it is a member of the Ministry Health System, a network of hospitals, clinics, and health-related organizations in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
MDCMC is situated in a rich agricultural and historical area of the country, at the base of the Door County Peninsula on Sturgeon Bay in eastern Wisconsin.
The people MDCMC serves live westward, across the bay and on the peninsula that extends more than 40 miles north into Lake Michigan. Their landscape is filled with quaint harbors, rocky shores, cherry orchards, rolling farmland, old barns, and intriguing artist’s studios in towns named Egg Harbor, Fish Creek, Ephraim, Sister Bay, Ellison Bay, Gills Rock, and Washington Island. Over the centuries, this land and these waters have been a draw to Native Americans, immigrant settlers, sailors, fur traders, farmers, artists, and tourists.
Today, the traditions of the earlier inhabitants are still honored. This is evident in the regard the locals have for historic preservation of their lighthouses, landmarks, state parks, and shoreline. The pride in their heritage is also demonstrated in the abundance of artwork and craftsmanship displayed in galleries, festivals, and artist workshops.
My firm, Spellman Brady & Co. (SBC), based in St. Louis, provides furniture, furnishings, art planning, and procurement for healthcare, higher learning, and senior living facilities. Being a lover of the quiet beauty that is Door County, we spied that Door County Memorial Hospital was building an addition to the original facility, built in 1964, and contacted the architects on the job, Berners-Schober Associates Inc. (BSA), which has its own rich history in architecture and design in Wisconsin and throughout the Midwest, going back to its founding in 1906.
To SBC’s good fortune, BSA’s Wendy Thorson, ASID, and the lead designer on the Ministry Health Door County project, agreed to meet and discuss the project and later invited us to meet her client, MDCMC, to discuss art for the new addition.
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