Tower of power: the Drummond Medical Building and the interwar centralization of medical practice.
This paper focuses on Montreal's Drummond Medical Building (1929), designed by the well-known architectural firm of Nobbs & Hyde, as a case study of the new typology that emerged in urban Canada in the 1920s: a modern, purpose-built high-rise for healthcare professionals, with elevators, telephones, indoor parking, and retail shops, located in an upscale commercial district. What role did medical high-rises play in the practice of modern medicine? We speculate that these clinics marked the end of the house-office era across Canada, centralizing the practice of healthcare professionals. This CIHR-funded project illustrates complex social and physical networks among architects and doctors, drawing attention to the importance of studying architecture as a technology in the history of modern medicine.
Harvard University, USA. theodore@fas.harvard.edu
David
D
Theodore
Stacie D
SD
Burke
Annmarie
A
Adams
D001108:Architecture / Q000266:history*; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000266:history*; D005160:Facility Design and Construction / Q000266:history; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008494:Medical Office Buildings / Q000266:history*; D011792:Quebec; D019037:Urban Health Services / Q000266:history*; D047828:World War I; D047789:World War II