Located just outside the Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital and Sandra Eskenazi Outpatient Care Center, The Matthew R. Gutwein Commonground aligns with Eskenazi Health’s wellness-focused model of care and represents a new paradigm for including outdoor green spaces as integral components of health care facilities.
The space offers a productive outdoor landscape featuring a lively garden community space and an expansive overhead trellis that is covered with native vine species and plant life. Participating design firms included LAND COLLECTIVE, OLIN Studio and Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R), all known for internationally recognized spaces throughout the United States and around the world.
The outdoor space features the Frank & Katrina Basile Pavilion which houses the Fresh for You Market, a grocery store/food pantry hybrid model that serves as a self-sustaining program to address food insecurity. It is open to the public with proceeds from traditional sales directly benefitting the market's voucher program, which provides patients who screen as food insecure during clinical visits with vouchers to shop for free food at the market. You can learn more on the Fresh for You Market page.
Built with the environment in mind, The Matthew R. Gutwein Commonground played a part in Eskenazi Health’s achievement of attaining Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Gold certification, making it among the first and largest new hospital campuses in the United States and first in the state to achieve this recognition.
Construction of The Matthew R. Gutwein Commonground was fully funded through Eskenazi Health’s philanthropic efforts, including gifts from Frank and Katrina Basile, the Griffith Family Foundation, the Central Indiana Community Foundation, St. Margaret’s Hospital Guild, Myrta Pulliam and the Kelcy M. Whitman Family Fund, a component of Legacy Fund.