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.
Cameron Mactavish says
To the Editor,
I agree with the author. We can do much better. It’s a terrible and banal lookin building that ignores our context and culture.
Cameron Mactavish
Architect
Oxford MD
Eva M. Smorzaniuk MD says
I agree with Mr. Corvan’s complaint that the architectural design is not in sync with its surroundings. It speaks to a greater problem with UMMS as it struggles to provide health care in the Shore – the rules that apply in Baltimore do not apply here. Ask anyone (non-management, that is) working for Shore Regional Health how much they enjoy their job, and whether or not they feel valued. This system has done a less than optimal job of providing patients of the MidShore access to primary care, as well as urgent and emergency care. Can we rely on them to operate and staff a hospital?
Alan Boisvert says
Do you have an alternative doctor?
Eva M. Smorzaniuk MD says
I realize it’s unrealistic to expect another hospital system to swoop in and build us a hospital. However, the community and the board of SRH could make demands for more autonomy for the hospital and its satellite facilities. Right now there is just about zero local control over operations.
Gerry Early says
The author just couldn’t be more right. This design is agltogether inappropriate–a misguided disgrace. I hope it’s not too late for local opinion to be heard and change the plan.
Carol Bilek says
I completely agree! First off, its location is going to encourage development sprawl towards Longwoods and gobble up more valuable agricultural lands. Secondly, to preserve the personality, heritage and culture of Easton and the Eastern Shore, the design should reflect the vernacular designs typical of this area. It certainly doesn’t reflect green design. Throw out that building design and plan a facility that is low, with pitched roofs and incorporates our colonial design heritage.
Jerry McConnell says
It’s out in a field because there’s no room for it in town, and Easton’s too congested, traffic wise. Accessibility—or lack thereof—is one of the primary reasons we need a new hospital; we need a bigger facility, also.
Having opined that, the design as shown in the public announcement is awful. Horrible. Looks like an aquarium.
Maybe the community needs a petition to require more architectural opinions before they get further down the road with the project, including some practical design options.
Maury Schlesinger says
Thank you, Jay for your critique of the new hospital’s aesthetics. You also mention a more glaring problem: building on a “greenfield” site and the suburban sprawl that will accompany the new hospital. Beyond the acres of parking lots which will surround the structure eventually low-rise outpatient facilities will be constructed. The long term plan has UMMS moving its auxiliary clinics and offices into this new enclave. This is an 1980s approach certainly not “smart growth” and will create vacant tracts in the town of Easton – What will happen to the existing hospital site and those buildings off Dutchmans lane? And while few workers and patients walk or bike to these facilities today, at least some can as they are within the town grid and adjacent to the trail. The new location – visible to traffic on RT. 50, will require all to use vehicles arrive. With so many complaints about the volume of traffic on this highway already, why create more?
Suzette Stitely says
I too agree with the author. I also hope that the glass used is state of the art to reduce/eliminate bird strikes and death. The buildings effect on wildlife should also be considered in our rural environment.
Elaine Dickinson says
Beyond the aesthetics, all that glass is deadly to birds. Midshore is a huge migration path of the Atlantic Flyway. Window strikes kill millions of birds each year and this facade seems to add to this hazard.
If the hospital has to be located amidst open land it should fit in more and reduce the glass.
deidra lyngard says
Totally agree. A petition would be good. even better a task force or organized group to get the ball rolling and start making noise. Any architects in the audience to join Mr Corvan?
Steve Shimko says
What would mister Corvan suggest as an alternate architectural style that’s more in keeping with Talbot county? Maybe something in the motif of corn silos, attached to a Deadrise?