Institutional Greens

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Why do Asylums always have green painted walls?

Fri 05-20-2005

Pale green is supposed to be a "calming" color.
As well, hospitals started to use this color for their operating rooms back in the 30s because it is the complementary color of red, so when medical staff had to spend a lot of time in surgery there would be some visual relief. If they looked at white walls they would have green "after-images" from continuously looking at blood. Green walls also produce less glare than white walls.
Or so they tell me. :-)

Lynne

Fri 05-20-2005

Lynne, very interesting, thanks for the info

silkster40z

Sat 05-28-2005

It's an interesting shade of green...a kind of bright mint green almost...quite unlike the drab greens found in military & government buildings.

Mnementh

Wed 06-08-2005

Lynne,
I wondered why O-R scrubs were colored a sort of light teal rather than white. I guessed colors such as this were indeed the complementary colors of red. Red as BLOOD. I also supposed the colors reduced glare from the lighting, but I dunno if that has anything to do with it.

Max

Wed 06-08-2005

I really dont like that color too much...

Aly

Thu 06-16-2005

Oh yeah...the calming colour thing.
Didn't 'they' instruct families back then to paint that same "apple green" colour in kitchens, in order to make housewives calmer and happier?
Later, they realized that it actually caused nervousness and anxiety--and was, in fact, the same (or similar) colour used in interrogation rooms in jails/prisons/police stations/whatever.

collaboration

Sat 07-30-2005

Motts also posted an explantion of "why green". It involved a complex set of chemical reactions that made the paint easy to clean and resliiant stain and scrubbing.

Ack

Wed 11-09-2005

The arrow is interesting. Most likely related to the 'IVI' on the other wall. It looks like somebody was 'marking their trail' as they went along, so they could find their way out.

Puddleboy

Sat 11-12-2005

Berthing areas on Navy ships were painted institutional green as late as the early 1980's.

I don't know about now. I still felt like killing a few shipmates. I might have actually offed one or more of them if not for the green. :D

Scott

Fri 12-09-2005

what is that very dark spot in the lower right corner?it can't b only shade, can it?

jinx

Wed 01-04-2006

There's a chair in the corner.

Motts

Wed 01-04-2006

Who built this awful place, Walmart?

John W. Mac

Fri 02-03-2006

I hate that green color. when we moved into our new house the living room was painted that color. my mom said it looked like a hospital...such an ugly color :oP

im with this arrow

puke green helps suppress your hunger,

khajiit13@yahoo.com

Sat 05-27-2006

Green was seen by some researchers to be a soothing color to the eye. Soviet researchers did the same thing in the '50s and '60s, but with the cockpits of early MiGs and Sukhois. It's that same range of seafoam-to-puke green.

Jag

Fri 07-07-2006

Hi. New to this site, and LOVE IT :-). I confess to asking this same question about the "stains of insanity" pic above, but the last post on this one was more recent, and also dealt with color. Does anyone know why these places only painted or tiled the bottom 3/4 of the walls, leaving the top white? Seems to be that way throughout the site...thanks.

nvusofmotts

Wed 07-12-2006

Some discussion about institutional colors here: http://www.opacity.us/...index.php?topic=1048

Motts

Wed 07-12-2006

institutions like bright colors because on the face of it drab colors look dull and depressing while bright look colorful and engaging. drab colors do in fact encourage calmness and lucidity

Iggy

Tue 10-09-2007

I think blue would be better. Blue is a vere serene color

Tainted Fairy Dust

Thu 08-07-2008

I've been looking through the whole gallery (beautiful shots btw) and I must say the colors are just really wacky. I mean, I like such bright colors on the walls but it just seems really weird to have it in a mental asylum.

Mackenzie

Thu 08-06-2009

Old institutional colors tend to look terrible when they peel.

STL girl

Sat 02-13-2010

for some reason, "puke" comes more readily to mind with green than pink (unless it's a really harmlessly light shade of either)

STL girl

Sat 02-13-2010

My bedroom is painted this green color. The people who lived here before must have liked it.

Lizzie-Ann

Fri 09-10-2010

It's really a scary idea that indeed operation rooms, are often colored green...
And Surgians wear the same pale green.
Not that relaxing for a building where you gotta/ must relax and heal your mind if you ask me...
Maybe they did that for the opposite.
To make children even more scary, and active to work or something..
I really don't have a clue.
I'm wondering, if the rooms where they performed their lobotomy's, and so called shock therapy's were pale green too...
Relaxing?
I'd rather walk in a real forest!

Eddy

Mon 07-11-2011

Whoever painted this place should be arrested!

caroline

Sat 08-27-2011

Something that caught my eye was the missing EXIT sign over the arch. The sign couldn't have been worth much plus it would have taken a really tall ladder to retrieve it. I'm also curious about the fire hose on the floor.

Larry D

Sat 08-27-2011

I wanna sit in that chair in the corner!

Raiinbow!

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Date Shot:	April 2005	Image ID#:	2342
Date Posted:	Fri, April 22nd 2005	Camera:	Canon 300D Rebel

Location Name:	Gravesend Asylum
Current Status:	Abandoned
Built:	n/a	Closed:	1974
Opened:	n/a	Demolished / Renovated:	n/a
Location Age:	n/a	Abandonment:	38 years

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Institutional Greens

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