MGH Ragon Building | 55 Fruit Street | West End

What is it with hospitals thinking they have to 'humanize' their huge new buildings by swallowing up the facades of old ones? Similar thing has happened at Childrens' Hospital, I believe. Silly use of old material for no real reason.

Well, in this case it's because the West End neighborhood association is threatening to fight to save the building entirely. I'm sure MGH would be happy to do without this.
 
Resistance to a Boston Hospital’s Expansion Centers on Rising Prices
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“A boisterous political battle over a proposed expansion by the largest and most expensive hospital system in Massachusetts is spotlighting questions about whether similar expansions by big health systems around the country drive up health care costs.”

“Mass General Brigham, which owns 11 hospitals in the state, has proposed a $2.3 billion expansion including a new 482-bed tower at its flagship Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and a 78-bed addition to Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital. The most controversial element, however, is a plan to build three comprehensive ambulatory care centers, offering physician services, surgery, and diagnostic imaging, in three suburbs west of Boston.”

“On Jan. 25, the state’s 11-member Health Policy Commission unanimously concluded that these expansions would drive up spending for commercially insured residents by as much as $90 million a year and boost health insurance premiums.”

“The commission also ordered Mass General Brigham to develop an 18-month “performance improvement plan” to slow its cost growth. The action, believed to be the first time in the country a hospital has been ordered to develop a plan to control costs, reflects concern about giant hospitals’ role in rising health care costs….”

https://news.google.com/articles/CBMiYWh0dHBzOi8va2huLm9yZy9uZXdzL2FydGljbGUvcmVzaXN0YW5jZS10by1hLWJvc3Rvbi1ob3NwaXRhbHMtZXhwYW5zaW9uLWNlbnRlcnMtb24tcmlzaW5nLXByaWNlcy_SAWVodHRwczovL2tobi5vcmcvbmV3cy9hcnRpY2xlL3Jlc2lzdGFuY2UtdG8tYS1ib3N0b24taG9zcGl0YWxzLWV4cGFuc2lvbi1jZW50ZXJzLW9uLXJpc2luZy1wcmljZXMvYW1wLw?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
 
Someone on here once said that urban renewal never really stopped, it just got privatized.
dead on

and so much bad stuff is being done by not so great institutions that people turn a blind eye to, due to perceived beneficence (and employment). Lab space and MGH expanding should not be accepted as such great, patient-centered and scientific-progress-promoting things they seem to be by the educated elite in this town.
 
Some of the last remaining buildings of the former west end. Kinda sad to see em go. Unfortunately theyre not really in the correct places for them to have been able to incorporate them into the new structures.

If MGH wanted to incorporate them, it could.
 
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Yeah thats true, definitely would make blossom st more pedestrian friendly too. Plus these are literally some of the last remaining buildings of an entire lost neighborhood, Im actually surprised theyre not historic structures along with the last tenement.
 

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