CHICAGO: Old Prentice Hospital - a Goldberg masterpiece being shamefully demolished

[Aleks]

Originally Posted by plinko

If the ceilings are so low, couldn't you cut out every other floor and create really interesting double-height volumes? (just throwing out random ideas)

I always thought those floors seemed kinda short. a while back i had an idea that this would make a fantastic lower portion for a residential high rise. although i'm not sure if anything could be added above? would they have to reinforce the core/add another layer or what?

i also thought about the double height-floors. the structure would hold the pool(s), gym, spa, etc etc... the pool located on the top 2 (current) floors on one of the south wings to let in daylight through a glass ceiling. the other wings would hold roof gardens. hell, maybe have one of the wings be an atrium while we're at it.

[Nowhereman1280]

The floors really aren't all that low. They are low for a modern hospital or lab space, but they wouldn't feel any lower than Marina City or other residential highrises of the time. Frankly I think the best option for this building is for it to be converted to apartments. I mean it has lake and park views, a unique aesthetic, a podium that would make an excellent outdoor garden/roofdeck, etc...

[CGII]

Originally Posted by Nowhereman1280

The floors really aren't all that low. They are low for a modern hospital or lab space, but they wouldn't feel any lower than Marina City or other residential highrises of the time. Frankly I think the best option for this building is for it to be converted to apartments. I mean it has lake and park views, a unique aesthetic, a podium that would make an excellent outdoor garden/roofdeck, etc...

Can you imagine how fucking awesome it would be to have an apartment with those ovular windows? Neither can I.

[Wrightguy0]

now normally i wouldn't like this type of architecture, i would say that the materials used have not aged well, or that it's too cold and brutal, but i find this building endearing, it's unique design makes it an important piece of modern architecture, much like Unité d'Habitation in france, or fallingwater. there's a quality about the design, like it was taken from the pages of Sci-Fi comic books and brought to life, it's sweeping arches and pod like tower evoke thoughts of the world of tomorrow, thoughts filled with hope, and that is powerful, how many buildings could inspire thoughts like that?

For that reason alone this building should be saved.

[Jasoncw]

It's really upsetting that this building may be demolished. It's an important project by one of Chicago's greatest architects.

I also wish that our public schools had some kind of proper art history segment in it. Talking about architecture with some (well, most) people is like talking about American history with Sarah Palin.

To add insult to injury, the building is owned by a university.

I think they should demolish it and build a strip club and theater. The theater would play Jersey Shore on loop 24/7. It would be operated by a non-profit and all proceeds would go towards the destruction of other important buildings.


Also, about a possible residential conversion, the floor plans seem conducive to it.



For those who would like to learn more about Bertrand Goldberg, there's a really nice website about him. www.bertrandgoldberg.org

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by sentinel

The plot thicken...(since I'm potentially too drunk to find the Prentice Hospital thread, if it exists at all, I'm just going to leave this here):

National Trust for Historic Preservation names old Prentice Women's Hospital to 11 'most endangered' list
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Drawing national attention to the local campaign to stop Northwestern University from tearing down old Prentice Women's Hospital, the National Trust for Historic Preservation on Wednesday will name the concrete, clover-leaf shaped Chicago high-rise to its list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.

The trust, a non-profit based in Washington, D.C., issues the list each year to help save buildings and other sites it deems significant. While the list carries no legal authority, it has proved to be a potent device for galvanizing public support. Since its debut in 1988, only eight of the 233 featured sites have been destroyed, Stephanie Meeks, the trust's president, said in an interview Tuesday.

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune....t-for-his.html

fantastic news! i hope this adds more fuel to the preservation fire.

[wrab]

Originally Posted by CGII

Can you imagine how fucking awesome it would be to have an apartment with those ovular windows? Neither can I.

Link

[The North One]

I hope it gets destroyed, I was walking past it a few days ago and its even more hideous in person.

[Bedhead]

Originally Posted by Jasoncw

www.bertrandgoldberg.org

That floorplan is really interesting - seems like the architect was using the shape of the building to make sure all the rooms were as close as possible to the nurses station, cutting out the need for long, depressing, institutional-feeling corridors.

[vid]

The hospital built in my city in 2000-2004 also uses nursing pods where rooms are located around a central station, but they referred to it as "the future of medicine".

The people who want to see this building "destroyed" are ignorant of how truly groundbreaking it was at the time, and how groundbreaking it could be if renovated today.

[The North One]

Originally Posted by vid

The people who want to see this building "destroyed" are ignorant of how truly groundbreaking it was at the time, and how groundbreaking it could be if renovated today.

Care to explain what is so groundbreaking about a brutalist, concrete flower shaped hospital?

[vid]

This is what I was referring to.

Originally Posted by Bedhead

That floorplan is really interesting - seems like the architect was using the shape of the building to make sure all the rooms were as close as possible to the nurses station, cutting out the need for long, depressing, institutional-feeling corridors.

Aside from the "I think it is ugly" argument, why should the building be demolished?

[JManc]

Originally Posted by The North One

Care to explain what is so groundbreaking about a brutalist, concrete flower shaped hospital?

It's not as if we are still cranking out these kinds of buildings or that Chicago is loaded with them. It's attitudes like this that led to the absolute destruction of of most American urban centers in the 50's, 60's and 70's. We looked upon pre-war buildings as nothing special and thought nothing about knocking them down until we realized that are finite and significant part of the urban fabric.

[george]

11-16

A masterpiece

[untitledreality]

Originally Posted by vid

Aside from the "I think it is ugly" argument, why should the building be demolished?

Leave the troll alone.

[Nowhereman1280]

Originally Posted by The North One

Care to explain what is so groundbreaking about a brutalist, concrete flower shaped hospital?

Well for one thing it is the first and only major use of a Cantilevered arch in existence. No one is ever going to build a 3D arch like this again, period. So destroying it means destroying something that we can't ever get back.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Nowhereman1280

Well for one thing it is the first and only major use of a Cantilevered arch in existence..

not quite the first. the balconies on goldberg's marina city also employ cantilevered arches for support (though at a smaller scale) and marina city predates prentice.

[Chicago103]

This building and me go way back, in fact I was born in this building back when it was a maternity ward.

[Nowhereman1280]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

not quite the first. the balconies on goldberg's marina city also employ cantilevered arches for support (though at a smaller scale) and marina city predates prentice.

That's why I said major, the balconies were on a small scale and I'm sure it has been used many times on a small scale, but never to support and entire highrise.

But you raise and even better point. It's clear that Goldberg's revolutionary architectural experiments were leading up to this. That he experimented with these forms in his volume of work before blowing them up and transposing these ideas to a larger canvas. This only adds to the argument that Prentice is an integral part of Goldberg's architectural evolution.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Nowhereman1280

That's why I said major, the balconies were on a small scale and I'm sure it has been used many times on a small scale, but never to support and entire highrise.

ok, i read you now. i thought you we're saying "first" and "only major" as distinct attributes, i didn't infer the "major" also applying to the "first" as i should have. my mistake.

but to the larger point, yes, absolutely, this building is an INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT piece in the progression of goldberg's overall body of work.

the future will hate our time for allowing such a magnificent building to be so prematurely destroyed.