St Vincent’s Hospital Healy Wing, almost Art Deco.

The #HealyWing of #StVincentsHospitalMelbourne is rather special, love the way the bricks grade up in colour from dark to light (only one other bldg in a Melb I know of does that), and the top levels step back, giving a bit of a NY skyscraper silhouette, though the style isn’t quite Art Deco, in fact impossible to pin down, there’s #Deco-ish brick detailing, but lots of arches too, a bit Mediterranean? Prob based on something in the US that Arthur Stephenson saw on a trip looking at hospitals in 1926-7, when he decided (for some reason) that’s what his firm should specialise in. It was designed in 1928, when the foundation stone was laid, but not built 1931-34, in stages as they raised the $, and a bit diff to the 28 design. Better I think.

The 1928 design

Update July 2022:

The Healy Wing of St Vincent’s Hospital, built 1931-4, Stephenson & Meldrum. Last time I posted this I said ‘probably based on something Arthur Stephenson saw on his fact finding trip in 1927’. And leafing through one of my New York books, saw the entry to the Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital, upper west side, started 1924, completed 1928 – a match ! Same low arches and window arrangement, and in brickwork. But the rest is very skyscrapery, it’s huge ! Ours is a bit prettier, with the bricks shading from dark to light.

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