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See it now while You Can

evilplatypus

The rumors have been swarming for a few years about this Hospital's fate but the tidal wave of recent articles, blogs and even a Metropolis Cover story makes me think the final battle is near. You can smell it in the air, the entire area around it has been torn down and rebuilt already, massive new hospitals have engulfed the entire district. Theres just something so cool about this building I hope they save it. Its a unique style of brutalism thats just so lovable and smooth - a very rare feat indeed for poured concrete, especially in the 70's.



link

link

 
Feb 11, 09 5:12 pm
randomized

that's a great building, hope it will be saved!

here are the pics from the links






Feb 11, 09 5:34 pm  · 
 · 
Emilio

"I dont think anyone will miss it"

Turnabout is fair play...and the above comment was cut and pasted from another thread.

Feb 11, 09 7:06 pm  · 
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evilplatypus

A lot of people wont Emilo. Thanks for the leftovers got anything new?

Feb 11, 09 7:26 pm  · 
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Emilio

"I like it too - but it will live on in print and photos."

I can do this all day...

Feb 11, 09 7:27 pm  · 
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evilplatypus

Go look up the word idiot in the dictionary

Feb 11, 09 7:43 pm  · 
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blah

I spent more than a few nights in that building and it doesn't work very well as a hospital.

I don't know what anyone would do with it?

Hotel?


Feb 11, 09 7:55 pm  · 
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blah

It was the women's hospital and my daughter was born there. I think it is empty now as Prentice has moved to a new building.

Feb 11, 09 7:56 pm  · 
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evilplatypus

I think its empty to. My nephew was born there. It was a decent obstetrics wing but obstetrics is so changed now and requires more linear spaces. The structure itself is extremely massive and hard to replicate in addition to being well loved by the community, more than I can say for a certain other structure who's sole statement was that it is was a flattened image thus appropriate to live on in photos and images. Destruction is actually a fitting end for the Lieb house whereas sculptured form is 3-dimensional.

Feb 11, 09 8:09 pm  · 
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Emilio

Yea, but they're not my words, so you go look it up...

"Im stating a fact that the building is not that important..."

Feb 11, 09 8:15 pm  · 
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evilplatypus

Emilio your building sucks, mine's better. I'd explain it to you but I couldn't comprehend it for you, because your an idiot.

Feb 11, 09 8:25 pm  · 
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Emilio

Ah yes, you can spout any idiocy if YOU don't like the building. Yea, keep on explaining, dum dum.

"(34) years and were going to crown this guy important in the stream of architectural history?"

Feb 11, 09 8:30 pm  · 
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Living in Gin

I've always been fond of this building... I hope it can be saved. It would make for an interesting boutique hotel.

Feb 11, 09 8:30 pm  · 
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Emilio

and I happen to like Bertrand Goldberg, but, you know, you dismissed Venturi as unimportant in the history of architecture...this is just too easy.

Feb 11, 09 8:32 pm  · 
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evilplatypus

Yes. Goldberg's legacy to architecture parallels the advancement of cantilever slab construction, high strength concrete, super core design and fiberglass concrete forming. From what i can Lieb house advanced wood siding and babbling minions of hack architects.

Feb 11, 09 8:34 pm  · 
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Emilio

and, oh yea, I forgot

"I dont think Corb was anything great either - over rated asshole"

Feb 11, 09 8:35 pm  · 
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vado retro

yes it would be a cool hotel. maybe it could be called the Venturi!

Feb 11, 09 8:35 pm  · 
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Emilio

but there's more

"We wont be losing our history by tearing this (building) down."

Feb 11, 09 8:35 pm  · 
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evilplatypus

We wont be losing our history, normal people dont equate their self worth and history with inanimate objects. it has functional value rather than bringing down the property values of it's neighbors like the Lieb house.

Feb 11, 09 8:40 pm  · 
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Emilio

oh, I see...

"It looks to me like (the patients are) thinking I cant believe I have to stay at this piece of shit."

Feb 11, 09 8:41 pm  · 
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evilplatypus

Their are no patients, they built a new, bigger one accross the street. And actualy my sister liked it there.

You forgot this one -

"Emilio - Fuck you. You cant have civil conversation without saying first I dont know shit, then Im a troll. Kiss my ass you loser."

Feb 11, 09 8:45 pm  · 
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Emilio

hm, let's see

"right back at you, buddy."

then there's

"All these buildings are still fugly."

Feb 11, 09 8:51 pm  · 
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Emilio

and you really don't know shit...

Feb 11, 09 8:52 pm  · 
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Emilio

But do carry on with the thread, 'cause, you know, I'll sleep better knowing that you're here at Archinect to enlighten us on which buildings are worthy of notice and saving from demolition.

Feb 11, 09 8:54 pm  · 
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evilplatypus

"Aflac"


Feb 11, 09 9:41 pm  · 
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evilplatypus

I am not FUGLY

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3466/3273522840_58db811fcd_o.jpg
[/img]


Feb 11, 09 9:42 pm  · 
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evilplatypus

People like me

Feb 11, 09 9:43 pm  · 
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evilplatypus

maybe i am fugly

Feb 11, 09 9:44 pm  · 
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evilplatypus

Awesome film of innovative architecture going up. Hopefully we as a profession re-learn that celebration of the science and art of building and engineering is not a lost art



this is marina city


Feb 11, 09 10:47 pm  · 
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FrankLloydMike

What I like about this building--and from what I saw in Metropolis (the only way I know about Goldberg), a lot of his work--is how pragmatic, yet also elementally strong it is. I mean, the plans are so simple and based on an idea of how the hospital will best work for the patients and the staff. Aesthetically, it's very dated, but I don't think we should knock things down simply based on that--at least not until they are considerably older than this or the Lieb house to give them time to age and see how they stand up. Unfortunately, it sounds like it is also dated programatically, and that's harder to overcome. I wonder what this building is like as a part of the city, too. There's a Goldberg hospital right by where I went to school in Boston, and I've got to say it didn't contribute much there.

What really struck me though is this quote:

normal people dont equate their self worth and history with inanimate objects

I don't think that's accurate. Maybe not buildings like Lieb or this hospital, but certainly our history, and our individual memory, is framed by our surroundings. Places where important (or mundane) events happened or places that commemorate or evoke feelings or memories are essential to our understanding of history. It's easy to see that in the Lincoln Memorial or the Pantheon, but it's equally important to keep in mind that it is not necessarily singular buildings, but rather larger built environments that frame this memory, which is perhaps why people tend to be so obsessed with preservation these days.

Feb 12, 09 1:10 pm  · 
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beekay31

Anybody been in the Marina Towers? I feel like I'm walking through Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange".

Feb 13, 09 10:52 pm  · 
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WonderK

I like this building. I think conversion to a boutique hotel could work, LIG.

Feb 14, 09 2:28 am  · 
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Emilio

it's not a bad building, but if you're going to play the duck game...

the quicker picker upper....

Feb 14, 09 1:22 pm  · 
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Emilio

it might grate on some people...

Feb 14, 09 1:31 pm  · 
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evilplatypus

Its more like a four pack and the proportions are off. And its not literally a rool of paper towels.

The floor plans brought the nurses stations closer to the private rooms the theory being better care. Now however the nurses stations have to be able to watch double or triple the capacity thus the move to a new hospital accross the street, which also houses private practices.

Goldberg's other buildings liek the design center in manhatten and Boston hospital are really bad in my opinion, and sum up a lot of what people didnt like about this period of architecture. This hospital along with Hilliard homes and marina city are extraordinary works of craft. This hospital dowesnt impose on the neighborhood like so many brutalist structures of the time but rather is set back enough to be admired for its form. its also underscaled compared to it's surroundings rather than dominating them like so many other concrete buildings of it's era. One thing it is not is a sign, or a monumnet, and it it doesnt have to resort to such gimickry.

Feb 14, 09 1:32 pm  · 
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Joe Soda

I'm watching the Marina City movie. It is touted as a "city within a city". This seems like a very bad concept as people don't move to cities to live in a city within a city but usually aim for a specific neighborhood. Or am i completely wrong about this?

Feb 14, 09 2:45 pm  · 
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evilplatypus

Soda - they dont anymore but in 1960 the urban cores were falling apart, being infiltrated by flop houses, drugs and strip clubs. There was a sense they were doomed. The city within a city model came about as a sanitised model of urban living, with color television, instant dinner and long distance telephones! Profesional women were also a new buyer market as well. The city in a city concept was wildly successful here in the 60s and 70s and to this day the citie in cities complexes are popular albeit better connected to the urbis. I think we just call it mixed use complex now.

Feb 14, 09 2:59 pm  · 
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