St. Joseph’s Hospital

This was the first of Goldberg’s hospital designs to employ the advantages of a “shell” wall construction. Built above the two-story support building, each floor of the nine-story bed tower was divided into four quadrants for patients. The 260-bed facility was the first hospital where BGA implemented their growing understanding of the needs and workings of the medical community. Within each quadrant were patient “villages” of ten beds each, clustered around a nursing station. The village system ensured that no nurse would be out of a five-foot reach of any patient. There were four villages on each floor.

Made of reinforced concrete, the earthquake resistant structure was supported by flared concrete columns, which served as a “soft zone” to absorb seismic shock. The shell walls of concrete took the vertical load from the upper reinforced concrete floor slabs and there were no interior columns. The concrete was finished with a white colored fiberglass giving the building a highly finished and glossy look.