New Hospital

Just over a month ago, the new Sidney and Lois Eskenazi 

Hospital opened on a site on the IUPUI campus, 

just west of downtown Indy. The new buildings replace

Wishard Memorial Hospital,which for over 150 years provided

medical care to the people of Marion County. 

As the needs of the community and its services expanded,

Wishard grew, much like Topsy. Visiting the hospital was like 

entering a maze, with clinics fitted and expansions added 

to the building wherever space could be found.

Years ago, it was evident that a new hospital was needed

and ground was broken for the new facilities in 2011.
An extraordinary gift of $40 million to fund the new public 
hospital was made in June 2011 by the Eskenazis.
Every time I came downtown, I passed by the construction 
site, wondering whether the piles of dirt, concrete, steel, 
and stone would be just another nondescript pile. 
But I think we've gotten something beautiful, clean 
and spare with beautiful blue stripes to relieve 
what might well have been ugly, blank walls
full of blind-eyed windows.

While patients were moved and the hospital officially 

began operations on December 7th, a lot of the landscaping

remains to be done. The workmen above are constructing

what will become a multi-layered "healing garden" nestled

in the yard of the hospital, outpatient center, and faculty

office buildings. This is in addition to the garden on the roof 

of the hospital, intended to provide patients, staff, 

and the community with organically grown vegetables. 

The structure of the healing garden is intriguing, 

with steel rebar taking organic forms 

that to me resemble bits of an RNA double helix. 

There is a pile of massive limestone to one side 

to be put into position down the road, 

and the top will be grassy, too.

Loo with a View

I went to work on Friday, a short-term temp assignment. Of course, I took my camera with me and found several opportunities for pictures, including portions of the brick-paved sidewalks and streets near Monument Circle. There is a lot of construction taking place downtown, primarily maintenance and improvement of existing streets. It's time for the bricks to be reset because the base has loosened or worn away, causing the pavers to rattle and rock when walked or driven on.  

The reworking in this area of the brick pavement appears to be an effort to make a bigger arc in curbing at the street corners just south of the Monument. (An arc in a corner? Huh?) The bricks were first laid about thirty years ago in an effort to improve the appearance of the Circle and to attract visitors to the downtown area. During the Christmas shopping season, the Monument is decorated with strands of lights and becomes "The World's Largest Christmas Tree."

I took a number of pictures through the bus window as we rode into town, among them the pictures of the new Wishard Hospital construction site below. The hospital began as City Hospital in 1859, opened first to treat victims of a smallpox epidemic, then served as a military hospital during the Civil War, treating about 13,000 sick and wounded soldiers. The hospital changed and grew with the people of the city; among many other "firsts," being the first of the city's hospitals to treat African-American patients, to admit African-American physicians to practice at the hospital and, in 1943 graduated its first class of African-American nurses from their diploma nursing program. 

Since 1909, Wishard has been affiliated as a teaching hospital with the Indiana University School of Medicine. With that affiliation and growth, the hospital building has become a warren of tunnels, clinics, offices and hallways to the point there was no other place to grow. In 2009, Wishard reached a land lease agreement with IUPUI to allow the new facility to be built. It's expected to be completed in 2014.

I am going out on a limb, but I do believe the concrete column above is an embryonic elevator shaft. At top left of the column's forms there is a green rectangle which has all the proportions and appearances of a portable toilet.

Right now, the penthouse with the best view around is a green plastic outhouse, a loo with a view.

                                             

While there have been as many as five cranes on site, this photo shows only three. The area surrounding the main construction site is a small village of contractors' shacks, replete with various types of heavy equipment. Obviously, it's a hole in the ground that needs my attention, but I need to figure out how the SDP camera can get to it. Hmmm.