Boos for the Big House

continued

“Mott looks like a half a billion dollars of generic hospital,” says Luckenbach with typical acridity. “I saw nothing in the virtual tour to indicate that it will have any architectural interest or distinction. Even the colors are predictably insipid—but then, when was the last time you saw any hospital with any design quality?”

“More beige wall cladding for the Medical Center Campus is not good,” agrees Rueter. Still, he says, the design “does have a certain apparent lightness that seems to be a trend for new buildings on the Medical Campus—a nice contrast to the ponderous Kahn-designed main hospital.

“If Mott is half as good as the new Shepley Bulfinch [–designed] Cardiovascular Center, it will be wonderful,” Rueter adds. “That building sets the standard for everything else: the entry is sheltered and inviting, the corridors and stairs are open to outside light and views, the interior spaces are gracious and carefully detailed, and it has a fresh, bright interior that is not antiseptic. The sky bridges are among the best I have seen. There is red brick! I could go on.”

Coming back to Mott, Beckley says that “the architect and client have attempted to make this institutional building as unlike an institutional building as possible given the constraints of the program, budget, and site. As for its appearance, we’ll have to wait and see. The Medical Campus is an island and does little to affront the aesthetic tastes of those who don’t use it.”