Last Thursday SLU announced intentions to demolish the Pevely Dairy complex to construct a new medical office building on the site. A university spokesman claims that the dairy buildings are not suited for "state of the art" medical office use. Looking around the country however, one can find many examples of historic buildings that have or are currently being renovated for medical office use.
In Cincinnati the historic Vernon Manor Hotel near Children's Hospital Medical Center is currently being renovated for medical office space. The 171,000 square foot building is considered a regional landmark due to its location at the top of one of Cincinnati's Seven Hills. Photo above from the website of LISC, who provided a bridge loan for state historic tax credits for the project. New Market Tax Credits were also used on this project.
In Holyoke MA two historic downtown commercial buildings have been renovated and joined together to create medical office space for the Holyoke Health Center. Photos from the website of Kirchhoff Consigli, who provided construction management for the project.
The two historic buildings were joined by building a contemporary structure between containing lobby space and an open stair.
A typical corridor in the Holyoke Health Center. Note how the historic features of the building were left exposed above the new walls.
A typical corridor in the Holyoke Health Center. Note how the historic features of the building were left exposed above the new walls.
Here is another example of medical offices located in a circa 1888 structure in Faribault, Minnesota. Photo by Jonathunder from Wikimedia Commons.
In downtown Long Beach, California, this striking Art Deco gem has been a medical office building since its construction in 1929. The building has been beautifully maintained and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.
Universities are supposed to be the hotbeds of innovation and forward-thinking. Yet SLU's reflexive response is "it's an old building; we can't do it." It doesn't give me much faith in their academics if their leadership is so short-sighted and lacks ingenuity.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if they realize that.
Wow...great reasoning there. Or not. Not a relationship there. Many of the pictures shown are much smaller medical centers and many were also in much smaller communities. I think it's a different situation. I don't want people to go around tearing stuff down, but they're trying to provide state of the art facilities and attract talent.
ReplyDelete^ are you kidding? the building in the very first picture is larger than anything SLU is going to build on the Pevely site, and Cincinnati is only about 30K people smaller than Saint Louis. Holy Oak is 8 miles outside of Springfield, MA with a metro population of about 700K - not at all a small community. wow, great rebuttal there. or not. maybe do a little research next time.
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