John King describes a new, 7.6-acre hospital campus in the heart of Oakland, California as accessible only by car or ambulance—in other words, "enough to make you sick."
San Francisco Chronicle architecture critic reviews Kaiser Permanente's new hospital in Oakland as "a behemoth that other municipalities should study - for pointers on what not to allow." The hospital's failures are troubling for the possibilities of designing modern hospital facilities for urban areas.
"The reality of today's America is that - rightly - we want seismically safe hospitals that offer a soothing environment for patients, and are convenient and well-equipped. The trade-off is structures with dimensions that don't easily fit into established urban districts," King writes.
Also disappointing is that Kaiser Permanente's Oakland hospital is "the hometown flagship of a major health care organization founded in 1945."
FULL STORY: Kaiser's anemic new Oakland hospital leaves us a bit ill
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