[Viñoly images via Inhabitat] It's only been four years, but in planning years, the merest blip in time, as Stanford University tries to expand its hospital into a complex encompassing the medical school, Stanford Hospital and the Lucille Packard Children's Hospital. They've already expanded on the 1960's-vintage facility by Edward Durell Stone, which will demolished at some point in the future for failure to meet current seismic standards. The new complex, designed by Rafael Viñoly, is expected to break ground this year, and this week Stanford seems to have hammered out a deal with Palo Alto to get the project going- a deal which will probably include a fund for future preservation projects.
Stone started his project at Stanford 1959 and went on to design a public library in Palo Alto as well as the city hall, a forerunner of New York's iconic GM Building- now better known for its mid-plaza Apple Store. Stone's work is not very popular these days, despite the resurgent interest in Mid-Century Modern, and his Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. is subject to regular, ongoing derision; his museum for Huntington Hartford in New York underwent a controversial renovation. Stanford remains a virtual survey of 20th Century American architecture and is well worth a visit if that's how you roll, and Stone's low-slung hospital is an interesting artifact.
· Stanford Hospital Takes Another Big Step [Mecury news]
· Viñoly's New Stanford Hospital [Inhabitat]
· Roundtable Redux: Critical Mass for 2 Columbus Circle [Curbed NY]
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