West Hospital is a building on the

Medical College of Virginia The VCU Medical Center is Virginia Commonwealth University's medical campus located in downtown Richmond, Virginia, in the Court End neighborhood. VCU Medical Center used to be known as the Medical College of Virginia (MCV), which merged with the ...

Campus of

Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is a public research university in Richmond, Virginia. VCU was founded in 1838 as the medical department of Hampden–Sydney College, becoming the Medical College of Virginia in 1854. In 1968, the Virgini ...

noted for its

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

architecture. It was commissioned by the Federal Works Agency;Public Works Administration and dedicated in 1940. Then known as the "New MCV Hospital", it was the fourth tallest building in Richmond when it opened to national acclaim in 1941, and is still among the tallest. The seventeen-story building, in Richmond's

Court End 250px, 1000 block E. Clay Street Court End is a neighborhood in Richmond, Virginia, that sits to the north of the Capitol Square and East Broad Street. It developed in the Federal era, after Virginia's capital moved from Williamsburg. Boun ...

, is in a

crucifix A crucifix (from Latin ''cruci fixus'' meaning "(one) fixed to a cross") is a cross with an image of Jesus on it, as distinct from a bare cross. The representation of Jesus himself on the cross is referred to in English as the ''corpus'' (Lati ...

shape. On the entrance of the building's west auditorium, a plaque (pictured) indicates that "on this site the Virginia convention ratified the

United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven ar ...

June 25, 1788." The building was originally slated for demolition as part of the VCU 2020 plan, but has since gotten a reprieve. The Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods (ACORN) opposed the demolition.ACORN
Retrieved October 14, 2012. Historic preservationists were outraged when VCU announced a master plan in 2004 that called for the demolition the West Hospital and an adjacent eight-story Art Deco building, completed in 1938, known as the A.D. Williams Clinic. Despite opposition, the A.D. Williams clinic was demolished in 2010. The updated 2020 master plan calls for short-term renovations to the West Hospital to “allow continued use of the building for the foreseeable future primarily as an office facility serving the MCV Campus.” The board of visitors approved more than $5 million in renovation work on two floors of the building. The Center for Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism located in the building offers added convenience and improved access to care by bringing together clinical and specialized support services for children with diabetes, obesity and other endocrine disorders. Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU offers the most comprehensive pediatric endocrine program in Central Virginia, and the facility is the region's only endocrinology center to offer treatment, clinical trials, education, medical nutrition therapy and psychological support in one locatio
Children’s Hospital of Richmond – Center for Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism — VCU Maps

References

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External links

- building location and directions
Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond NeighborhoodsWest Hospital on flickrVCU 2020 plan
Buildings and structures in Richmond, Virginia Virginia Commonwealth University Healthcare in Richmond, Virginia Art Deco architecture in Virginia Hospitals established in 1940 1940 establishments in Virginia