Saint Joseph's Hospital in Tacoma Washington – (USA)

Abstract

The building is formed by two structural masses which greatly contrast with the buildings surrounding same. A nine-story tower, rest on a two-story rectangular base, with a central core going through the entire height of the building. The building is finished off with an attic for installations. The following services are installed in the base: reception, emergency, operating rooms, recuperation, radiology, pharmacy and other complementary and functional departments. The two central core floors, in the base of the tower, house the machinery for running the building. The nine floors of the tower are destined to: one for pediatrics, another for medical specialties, a third for gynecology and birth recovery; four for medical and surgery patients and two for enlargement. The floors destined for patients rooms consists of four symmetrical square-shaped sections, made of resistant walls in which concavities and convexities alternate throughout the height of the building. Each area consists of eight to nine rooms, layed-out in a semicircle around a nurse's station, permitting direct visual attention of the patients without the nurses having to get up. In addition, this group uses the general services of the central core and the stairs and elevators which surround it. The interior design of the building is sober and functional, complemented by a number of installations which contribute to its comfort and good operation.