But they have also worked to ensure that most of the rooms can be readily adapted to different purposes. The emergency facilities are grouped on the first floor, with bed-sized elevators to convey patients from two rooftop helipads. Operating and other interventional rooms are concentrated on the second floor, mechanical services on the third, neuropsychiatry on the fourth and the Mattel Children's Hospital on the fifth. Their number was reduced to 525 from the present 830 in order to focus attention on the most acute cases. Each of the 26 elevators is dedicated to use by patients, medical or service staff.
Proximity is a crucial issue.
A big block requires more internal corridors, which use up space. So it made functional as well as environmental and aesthetic sense to articulate the five stories above the three-level podium, breaking up the mass of the building and pulling natural light into the center. Light defines space - it is what architecture is all about. Light also affects the human body, as Susan Mortensen M.N. '87, clinical director of Nursing, is quick to point out. It's tremendously important to experience the natural cycle of light and dark and to be wheeled out into the sun.