Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) Clinic Expansion

[Silophant]

They didn't actually say what buildings would be demolished or sold off, but I'm guessing it's the older buildings between 7th and 8th east of Chicago (presumably not including the bit right up against Chicago, or the part that's cantilevered over the street would fall over). Gotta imagine that the brutalist stuff between Park and Chicago stays, so they keep a continuous campus between the parking ramp and the new tower.

Interesting that they're expanding the new Specialty Center already. Wonder if that entails building up on the low-rise portion in the SE corner, or demolishing that last little apartment building and filling out the rest of the block, or both?

[pillsdoughboy]

Yes, I imagine it would be the Swedish Hospital and the Excelen Center (across from the Hope Church). These buildings definitely scream "past their useful life," as medical buildings at least. Part of me hopes they could be reused-- they're actually pretty appealing buildings and could possibly become affordable units, possibly for people with high medical needs.

[Mdcastle]

Sounds like they don't know themselves how many new private rooms are going to be built in the new tower, which affects how many currently shared rooms in existing buildings will be converted to private, and how many can be repurposed or removed. Another factor is that standards of care and patient expectations still allow shared rooms in psychiatric wards, so they could easily expand their capacity there if they wanted to

[mattaudio]

My first reaction was wanting to see the Swedish Hospital building facing Elliot Park preserved, but that's only a small part of that superblock.

Between demolition of the Parkside ramp, and hypothetical reconstruction or reconfiguration of those old MMC facilities between Swedish Hospital and the brutalist superblock, they have well over two city blocks to work with.

Too bad the plan to remodel part of the Parkside tower into apartments didn't move forward. viewtopic.php?p=153615&hilit=parkside#p153615

I'm also curious how the expanded parking ramp block closer to Thrivent will truly make up for the loss of the Parkside ramp. It's a 3+ block internal walk from the future parking expansion to the hypothetical bed tower in place of the old Parkside ramp.

Edit: Would also be great to see 9th and/or 10th Aves reconnected through that superblock.

[Trademark]

My first reaction was wanting to see the Swedish Hospital building facing Elliot Park preserved, but that's only a small part of that superblock.

Between demolition of the Parkside ramp, and hypothetical reconstruction or reconfiguration of those old MMC facilities between Swedish Hospital and the brutalist superblock, they have well over two city blocks to work with.

Too bad the plan to remodel part of the Parkside tower into apartments didn't move forward. viewtopic.php?p=153615&hilit=parkside#p153615

I'm also curious how the expanded parking ramp block closer to Thrivent will truly make up for the loss of the Parkside ramp. It's a 3+ block internal walk from the future parking expansion to the hypothetical bed tower in place of the old Parkside ramp.

Edit: Would also be great to see 9th and/or 10th Aves reconnected through that superblock.

I don't think it's that critical for those streets to be reconnected, but I would like to see a pedestrian path connection on 9th avenue to connect to Elliot Park