Pursuing WELL Certification?
Turn your art program into part of your placemaking and wellness strategy.
Creating a WELL-focused space is about more than how a building performs. It is also about how a place feels, connects and creates a sense of belonging for the people who experience it.
Carland Cartography creates location-inspired artwork for workplaces, hospitality spaces, residential developments and other commercial environments. By transforming the geography, culture and identity of a place into art, my work can help project teams support the WELL Nature and Place strategy, including WELL v2 M02: Provide Connection to Place.
Your walls can do more than decorate your project. They can tell people where they are — and why that place matters.
What Is “Provide Connection to Place”?
Within the WELL Building Standard, the Mind concept considers how the built environment can support emotional and psychological well-being.
For projects pursuing WELL v2, M02: Nature and Place includes a focus on creating meaningful connections between occupants and the places they inhabit.
The Provide Connection to Place component asks project teams to consider design elements that address:
- Celebration of culture
- Celebration of place and the surrounding community
- Integration of art
- Human delight
This creates a natural opportunity for architects, interior designers, developers and project teams to think strategically about the artwork incorporated into a space.
Instead of choosing generic artwork at the end of a project, art can become part of the project's larger placemaking story.
Art That Gives People a Sense of Place
Imagine entering a hotel in Nashville and discovering an abstract artwork inspired by the streets surrounding the property.
Or walking through the headquarters of a company in Chicago and seeing the familiar geometry of the city transformed into color, line and movement.
Or living in a residential development where the artwork throughout the common areas reflects the neighborhoods, landmarks and geography just outside the building.
That is the idea behind Carland Cartography.
I create abstract, location-based artwork inspired by real geography. Streets, neighborhoods, waterways and urban patterns become the foundation for layered compositions that celebrate the character of a city while remaining sophisticated enough for contemporary commercial interiors.
The result is artwork that doesn't simply fill a wall.
It helps people connect with where they are.
How Carland Cartography Can Support Your WELL Strategy
01 | Celebrate Place
Every Carland Cartography piece begins with a real location.
Artwork can be selected or commissioned to reflect the city, neighborhood or region surrounding your project, creating an immediate visual relationship between the building and its larger community.
From Nashville to New York, Chicago to Los Angeles, the artwork provides a recognizable connection to geography while interpreting it through a contemporary artistic lens.
02 | Integrate Art Throughout the Built Environment
Artwork can be incorporated strategically into:
- Lobby and reception areas
- Corridors and circulation spaces
- Conference rooms
- Amenity spaces
- Residential common areas
- Guest rooms and suites
- Workplaces
- Restaurants and hospitality environments
- Executive offices
- Wellness spaces
- Public-facing areas
Rather than treating artwork as an afterthought, I work with project teams to identify opportunities where art can contribute to the overall experience of the space.
03 | Celebrate Local Culture and Identity
Places are more than coordinates on a map.
They carry memories, histories, architecture, movement and shared experiences.
Location-inspired artwork can help communicate the identity of the community surrounding a project—creating a visual bridge between the people inside the building and the city beyond its walls.
For projects seeking a deeper level of local storytelling, commissioned artwork can explore specific neighborhoods, cultural landmarks or community narratives.
04 | Create Human Delight
There should be moments within our built environments that simply make us stop, look closer and feel something.
Color. Detail. Discovery. Recognition.
Someone may recognize the street where they grew up.
A visitor may discover the shape of a city they have never seen from above.
An employee may find their neighborhood hidden within the lines of an artwork they pass every morning.
These moments of curiosity and recognition transform art from passive decoration into an experience.
From “Art Package” to Placemaking Strategy
Commercial artwork is often selected late in the design process.
The furniture has been specified. The finishes have been selected. The architecture is complete.
Then someone asks:
“What are we putting on the walls?”
I believe there is a better opportunity.
When artwork is considered earlier, it can reinforce the project's design narrative, local identity, wellness goals and connection to community.
For WELL-focused projects in particular, your art program can become another tool for creating a more thoughtful, human-centered environment.
Don't just decorate the building. Connect it to the place it belongs.