Today I was bored and looking for a read, anything . I rifled through the mail and found nothing interesting to look at. More bills and promotions, Ad nauseam. In desperation, I picked up a University of Maryland Health flyer and turned the front pages and immediately I spotted what looked at an architect’s rendering of an extremely modern “ progressive architecture centerfold” building , and I learned it was to be the new county health facility slated to be built in 2023-2025 which I guess is right now! Horrors not here in historic Talbot county please!
Digesting more of the picture, I went into the next level shock imagining that new 6 story plate glass mid rise building is to be placed out on route fifty at the entry gateway to Easton on the old Longwoods road near the community center, but seriously, literally in the middle of a field. Two things struck me right away. In a green field a six story structure. Crazy , inappropriate. Why isn’t this in town! Who designed this?
Point One , this proposed building is both trendy , rather obnoxious and ugly , but most importantly horribly inappropriate. I ask what a trendy suburban modern structure doing out in the middle of a farm field. I thought Maryland was smarter than this , but I remembered this is a county site, not city. I thought that we as a state were focused on “smart growth” , That means we steer big buildings and new growth into towns, not out in green fields. We’ve made these similar mistakes in other counties and we are supposed to Know better.
Smart growth happens inside towns not outside of them. We keep green fields green because we like agriculture and we respect it. The big idea here is to use the existing town infrastructure already in place, build town density and not sprawl. . Also the need for transportation to and from that facility is reduced for those in town and trips to stores can be combined. Placing facilities like this is a green field is extremely bad planning, unsustainable, and energy intensive. . If state money in involved it this project should be shelved for violating the biggest guiding principle of smart growth, placement. It’s in the wrong place. Obviously looking at the pathology of this project, a county approval trumped city requests. They found a site that the city wouldn’t or couldn’t provide.
Second point: when all Is said and done , this building looks like it slipped off the shelf of a psychologist office, a classic case of multiple personality disorder, playing to modern architecture critics , designs like this are trendy but hold no lasting value.
The Talbot community center just next door is least an attempt at looking like it belongs to Talbot county architectural heritage , it’s looks like a warehouse or sorts albeit a bit out of place also. A community center outside of town ? Oh well. The community center building plays down the dazzle factor and attempts to link to county historical lineage as a commercial “packing house “.
This new medical building does nothing of the sort. It’s arrogant and it’s huge. And it sits right on a gateway site of the city of Easton. All six plus stories of it. I’ll bet the city is angry about this and they should be. The county should have respected the gateway entry site but ignored it.
But this building takes the prize for fish out of water, and As much as I know how important a hospital is to a community ( we all know the value of that investment in our county) , I am shocked to see how much this does not look like Talbot county and how much it does look like suburban PG county. In fact it may have already been built somewhere else and did in fact slip Off the shelf. It’s a bad franchise design at best.
My main point here is to say that nowhere in the process did it occur to the university of Maryland architects or the county commissioners that approved the design that this structure needed to respond to its site and context. It’s in a field!. Are we now a suburban extension of the Washington metropolitan area? Did they think we’d be impressed by modern imagery ? Not really.
Finding the right context for a buildings new image , That’s job one for an architect. It’s important as the building use which should also be legible ( readable) from the exterior.
If this building yells anything it’s saying “ I’m something modern and new” it will soon be dated and horribly out of place. Soon modern building becomes old and dated. Their visual language becomes trite and outdated and suddenly new looks out of place and old, like an ugly 1950’s sweater. It’s almost funny that it even was imagined to be interesting.
Unfortunately, we locals will be stuck looking at a hyperactive modern building out of place for decades to come because an arrogant corporate firm and medical corporation wanted to make a bold and heroic statement. Enough of this ! We demand better. This is hugely Inappropriate!
A bigger problem exists that allowed this to happen. The county has no one with architectural experience to point out the failings of any building design. If someone ( maybe a retiree) could help them through these growing pains, we’d all be better off. We wouldn’t get to where we are now without someone raising a question.
Linkage to our county history is the one thing that makes us special and it’s our distinct competitive advantage. When we throw it to the wind and don’t demand others respect that history, we are lessening our worth. We are corrupting our future..
The owners , university of Md corporations also know better too , but are playing the public using some off the shelf franchise design . No one asked for better. The new emergency care facility in Cambridge at least tries to link the warehouse history of Cambridge to their new facility, Cambridge demanded it in their zoning review but not Talbot. The Cambridge facility looks almost like it belongs. The city knew enough to ask for better. What was the linkage to Talbot , it was not even considered. No one asked or cared. That’s Talbot’s fault.
This building really could have been more. It’s a terribly disappointing performance and and horrible misstep. Building placement and exterior imagery are everything to a rural community. And this six story building ( tallest in county ) fails the test miserably and will scream as an ugly suburban institution for decades , a real shame. It could have been more….. and still could actually. It’s not built yet.
Jay Corvan is a local architect and preservationist from Trappe, Maryland.
Liz Smith says
In response to Jay’s opinion piece, I will begin by stating that I am neither an architect or preservationist, but i am a native of Chestertown. We have a lot of historic buildings and plenty of historical heritage in these parts too. Although I sympathize with the adage of keeping things in character with history, I also clearly recognize several other issues that play a role in the scale of this project.
Unfortunately, I have required frequent visits to the medical facilities in Easton over the last few months and several points run counter to your argument of building a much larger facility in the town of Easton. First of all, where in the town limits is there space for such a facility? The present hospital is located in the midst of a district with lovely historic homes. Try to find a place to park! The current hospital has been outgrown – period! Many people are coming from neighboring counties; myself included, because we have no viable options on our home turf. It’s either across the bridge or to Easton. In short, my question remains – Where do you propose they build a much larger hospital within the municipal limits? What about the needed water and sewer infrastructure? Can Easton utilities handle such an uptick in use?
The new hospital is slated to be on over 200 acres – like it or not, that much space is needed. This isn’t just about Talbot County anymore. The UM Health System has decided to systematically close the smaller hospitals in favor of a large geographically centered facility. Would I like to see the hospital in Chestertown provide quality and comprehensive care? You bet ! I was born in that hospital and they stopped delivering babies there over a decade ago.
As for the architectural design – it isn’t exactly traditional, but I’m not sure whether 17 and 1800s designs would lend themselves to the workings of a modern hospital. I think that a lot of space is needed for the expansion and don’t see that that can happen within the corporate town limits of Easton. If the 6 stories are reduced in height, it would likely mean that the building would have to sprawl more to make up the same square footage and use. The location makes it more accessible for general traffic, ambulances and a helicopter. Having driven into the current hospital a few times, it takes you through town, which increases in-town traffic. Not the best thing if you multiply the traffic flow that a larger hospital will generate.
I’m not intending to be unsympathetic as I am an Eastern Shore native and am pretty protective about this part of the world myself. I do understand however, that a larger and more modern hospital is very much needed for the counties that will be served. I hope that the new facility will be landscaped well to provide some visual barrier and that careful consideration will be given to the aesthetics of the land. Other than that, I think that what Talbot County wanted, it will get and there will be real life saving and enriching benefit to the many patients that will be served.
Perhaps we can petition for horse and buggy parking !
Let’s hope for the best
Beryl Smith says
We have no viable options in Chestertown and other surrounding towns because the UMD, with Shore Regional Health, has done everything they can to gut facilities that formerly catered to their citizens. By consolidating everything in Easton, Talbot County, they theoretically adapted to current practices but deprived deserving citizens with health issues adequate health care.
Melinda Bookwalter says
Ah yes, and it opens the door
as precedent
to fill in the gaps
from it in the farm field
to the edge of town
with more like it,
or at least “compatible”
with different parts of it.*
*What is known is that it is MUCH needed and I am sure it will be a state of the art medical facility within its’ architectural boundaries, both facility and land.
Alan Boisvert says
Well, that’s one opinion. I’ll just be glad to have a shiny new hospital irregardless of it’s looks.
Lolli Sherry says
Mr Corvan, this is no longer an Easton hospital. It will be a Regional Health Center serving all five counties on the Eastern Shore. Your Op Ed would have had more credence if you had limited it to a discussion of architectural design and not tried to force it into the context of Talbot County.
Beryl Smith says
All points above well taken. One additional point that no one has ever addressed is this; what is going to happen to the current hospital in the center of Easton. Will that just sit as an empty shell probably at some point with broken windows, rotted roof, and lots of vandalism or will it be torn down and leave a scarred empty mess in the center of a town that prides itself on many things. Surely this would not be one of pride.
Leonora says
The design is awful. I’ll take my appendix elsewhere.