The Downtown Plan: The Future of West Hospital

Urban Richmond takes umbrage at the Times-Dispatch editorial team's recent offerings about the future of VCU's West Hospital (No, no, the early offerings -- way back on February 22.).

I am one of those who will protest their characterization of preservationists having badly skewed values.

My question is, when did we accept VCU’s proposition, without challenge, that they have only two options: keep using an outdated ineffective hospital building or tear it down.

Why not sell the building and use the proceeds to build a new hospital nearby?

There’s plenty of vacant land around MCV- currently used as surface parking lots (View Map of Broad & 14th area).

I absolutely agree that MCV should build a new hospital building- I just don’t buy the dichotomy we’re being sold: tear it down or fail the patients.

There may, of course, be good reasons that MCV cannot acquire the vacant land near them- but that their spokespeople (and the TD) never mention it as an option while harshly criticizing their opponents suggests they are bent on pursuing their own agenda.

By the way, there's quite the discussion thread on the subject of West Hospital, the Downtown Plan process and the suggested conflicts-of-interest of the chairman of the Richmond Planning Commission over at Richmond City Watch.

Comments

[John]

Thanks for the perspective. One of my poorly articulated points about the West Hospital (and about 73 other topics in Richmond) is how little the debate has been focused on the architecture and/or usability of the building. Most of the public debate has essentially emphasized that VCU can/should do whatever it wants and/or the building should be saved just because. It's nice to hear some input from someone who knows the building from a functional perspective.

[WHworker]

Tried to post this at the blog link above, but it wouldn't go, so I'll post my comments here: I'm all for preservation and good architecture. Richmond benefits from both. But I work in West Hospital full time. It is an unbelievable mess inside...antiquated, very poorly maintained, elevators that often don't work, ceilings falling in, a HVAC system that would gag the best set of lungs, oh and did I mention the asbestos throughout the structure. No one is willing to spend the money to keep it acceptably functional as it is. Just what angel is going to pony up to restore or renovate this building? And even tho its name says "hospital", almost all the floors are dedicated administrative and faculty office space ...not patient rooms or treatment areas. Short of gutting the entire interior including mechanicals,simply leaving the exterior shell and building a completely new bldg within that shell, I can't imagine any way to keep this building viable in Richmond's future.