As more and more hospitals and medical centers integrate themselves further into their communities, becoming a place for medical care as well as community meetings and wellness programs, space design is evolving to become more regionally focused. From materials palettes to curated art collections, these touches further break down the walls and create inviting places where patients can feel calm, cared for, and connected.

But what if the most significant regional reference to your facility—the one whom you’re named after—happens to be one of the greatest legends in baseball history?

Cobb Memorial, which opened in 1950, got its name when Ty Cobb made a $100,000 donation for his hometown in northeastern Georgia to build a modern 24-bed hospital. Nearly 60 years later, owner Ty Cobb Health Care System (Royston, Ga.), a not-for-profit system, decided to replace Hart County Hospital and Cobb Memorial with a single new facility in Lavonia, Ga.

Ty Cobb Regional Medical Center opened in 2012 and incorporates many of today’s best design practices, such as natural light-filled rooms, views to natural spaces, private, acuity-adaptable rooms, and low-VOC materials.

When it came time to design a fitting tribute to its namesake at the new 155,000-square-foot facility, Scott McFadden, vice president and director of design, Maregatti Interiors (Indianapolis), says the pressure was on to deliver a hit.

“We wanted to make sure the facility didn’t have a big sports reference because it’s not a sports bar,” McFadden says.

At the same time, the interior design needed to recognize the Ty Cobb reference and the history of philanthropy. “We wanted to do it in a way that everybody could enjoy it but that didn’t take over the healing spaces of the hospital,” he says.

The solution was a 30-foot-long-by-16-foot-wide digital wall graphic that hangs in the dining room and is visible as you approach the building via a wall of windows. The sepia-tone piece incorporates images of the famous playerfrom the Ty Cobb Museum, along with his autograph and quotes that carry a healthcare-related theme: “I regret to this day that I never went to college. I feel I should have been a doctor.”

“It becomes a bit historic in nature in that way,” McFadden says.

For the residents of Lavonia, Ga., it becomes the latest chapter in Cobb’s history with the community.

For more on Ty Cobb Regional Medical Center, check out Healthcare Design magazine’s November issue.