River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1920-11-18
NEW STATE HOSPITAL STARTED
First Contract Let for 6-Story
Building

Contracts nave just Deen let Tor the
foundation of the first unit of the
Wisconsin General hospital which is
to be built on the campus Of the Uni
versity of Wisconsin, and ground will
be broken as soon as weather permits.
The first building to be erected will
be the center of a group of eight
separate buildings, according to plans
drawn by Arthur Peabody, state
architect.
The Bradley Memorial hospital and
the University Infirmary, already
erected, will form two of the eight
units of the group. The other build
ings are to be the central general
hospital, children's hospital, path
illogical building, a psychfatric unit,
pediatric home, and teaching hos
pital. A nures' home will be included
in the psychiatric building.
Around the whole group will be a
strip of land which will serve to isolate
the hospital from noise. Flower gar
dens and hedges around the hospital
are outlined in the plans to make the
institution one of the most attractive
of the university buildings, and will
be faced with buff-colored pressed
brick and Bedford stone.
The structure that is now underway
will be six stories high, will contain
800 beds forming the main unit of the
group. 1t will have four entrances,
,one for visitors, one for ambulances,
one for tradesmen and one for stu
dents. The main entrance for visitors
| to be called the Memorial Entrance,
| will be two stories high lined with
marble and decorated with bronze
tablets concentrating Badger soldiers
and sailors and inches for portrait
statues. This will lead into large
visitors or public room. On the first
floor will be large waiting or con-
sulting room and 81 examination
rooms, the hospital record room,
| pharmacy, kitchen and store. rooms,
| the nurses ward and the X-ray lab
oratories.
Each ward will have a separate sun
porch and on the roof there will be an
open garden where patients may
exercise in the open air. A logga
two stories high, an arcade with q
| high open room for convalescents
will be a feature of the building. The
total cost of the central building will
be about $1,20O,O00, of which $S00,00(
will be expended Oh construction ant
100000 on equipment and furnish
ings.
| The entire Wisconsin General hos
pital project, which was provided fol
by measure voted by the Legislature
at a special session last spring, will
require ten years for completion. i
will provide both the needed facilitie:
for the expansion of the university's
two-year medical course into {
| full four-year medical course Of the
1 first class, and also the staff anc
equipment whereby the state can pro-
vide care and treatment for its sicl
and crippled. As a further develop,
| nient of the ideal embodied in the
county nurse law, it will provide 9
| means for the treatment of cases re.
ported by county nurses.
The Wisconsin General hospital is
to be a research hospital combining
| theory and practice. Students in the
university medical school will serve
as internes and assistants in the hos
| pital, and the specialists and experts
whose employment will be made pos
sible by the combining of the two
projects, will serve both the hospit.
al staff and on the medical school
faculty. All possible facilities fol
handling state hospital cases will be
| installed.