Stop 1: Corner of Garland Ave. and 22nd Ave. S.: Look around. Until 1980,
Garland Avenue was a through-street—it cut right on up the hill—and
the canyon of buildings down 22nd Avenue was largely empty space and parking
lots. In only 23 years, from 1980 when the “new” Vanderbilt Hospital
(the first building on the right as you look down 22nd) opened, and 2003,
when the free-standing Children’s Hospital is scheduled to open, this
area has been transformed beyond belief by the construction of two parking
garages, The Vanderbilt Clinic, Medical Center East, and the Kim Dayani Center,
all of which face 22nd Avenue between Garland and Capers Avenue, three blocks
away. But before there was all that, and before there was a library at the
top of the hill, there was the building we now call Medical Center North.
Old timers still call it the “old hospital,” which it was, but it
was also much more.
Medical Center North was built in 1925 with a tic-tac-toe board design that
had two north-south hallways and two east-west hallways, and open courtyards
in between to provide all rooms with light and ventilation. Dr. G. Canby Robinson,
the leader who is credited with bringing the Medical Center into the modern
age, sketched out the design for the building himself, and the architectural
firm was Bullfinch-Shipley of Boston. Robinson’s idea was to have everything
under one roof—the hospital, clinics, laboratories, classrooms, and library
were all in this building. The simple design of the building was modified
over the years, with additional construction adding new corridors or wings
every 10 years or so, through 1972, when the Joe and Howard Werthan Building
was added on the front. After the opening of the new hospital in 1980, no
new construction was added to Medical Center North until recently, when a
rodent care facility—some people call it the “Rats Carlton”—was
added atop the front of the building. Also, Medical Research Building III,
which opened in 2002, is connected to Medical Center North, but is considered
a building in its own right.
The 1925 building was opened on Sept. 16 of that year, and represented the
first outpost of Vanderbilt Medical Center at this location. Previous incarnations
of VUMC, dating back to 1874, had been located in downtown Nashville.
Turn and walk along the sidewalk that curves around to the right of the awning.
1925 was a long time ago however you measure it, but it is ancient history
when it comes to medicine and the progress since then. One example: turn toward
Medical Center North and let your eyes drift upward to the rows of windows
on the second and third floors that cross between corridors above the awning
and back about 50 feet. Those windows and the bricks between them are the
most visible remaining evidence of a porch for tuberculosis patients that
ran along this face of the building. Before the invention of antibiotics,
there was no cure for TB, but fresh air was thought to be beneficial to the
patients, so the original building had a porch adjacent to the TB ward. The
porch was on the second floor, and the open area on the third floor was more
narrow and was a walkway between the B corridor on the right and the C corridor
on the left. The second floor porch and third floor outdoor walkway were bricked
in in the 1950s, when antibiotics had TB on the wane.
Now enter the building and turn right at the end of the short hallway onto
the S corridor, and follow it until it intersects with the B corridor. Turn
left and follow the B corridor to the T corridor. Turn left and continue a
few more steps down the T corridor to the exterior door to the Chapman Quadrangle,
noting in the foyer the wooden paneling, original terrazzo floor, and the
historical photographs on the walls. Some of this paneling is original to
the 1925 building, when this was one of the main entrances to Vanderbilt University
Medical Center.
Stop 2: The Judy Jean and John E. Chapman Quadrangle: This is one of the
most beautiful spots at the Medical Center. It was named in 2001 in honor
of Dr. John Chapman, who retired that year as Dean of the School of Medicine,
and his wife Judy Jean, who taught for many years in the School of Nursing
and School of Medicine. This arched gothic doorway is the traditional entrance
to the School of Medicine, and there are photographs of the faculty dating
back to the 1920s taken in front of this door. This quadrangle was also the
site of medical school commencement ceremonies until about 25 years ago.
This area was not always a closed courtyard. The wing of the building opposite
the archway, known as the A.B. Learned Laboratory or, to insiders, as the
U corridor, was built in 1960, closing off the courtyard. That building is
now a part of the larger, new structure you see up and to the right, which
is called
MRB III, or the third Medical Research Building.
The area was not always particularly picturesque. The street grid of Nashville
once continued through this part of campus and just beyond the door on the
far side of the Quadrangle was a busy street. There is a photograph from the
1940s that shows this area basically being used as a parking lot, and even
in the early 1980s, this was a frequent site for lunchtime games of horseshoes
by staff members.
Walk out into the center of the Quadrangle. The sculpture near the center
is called Pursuit of Knowledge, by artist Maurice Blik. Other works in the
Quadrangle are Sundial by Bill Doak, Pure Heart by Lin Swenson, Two Rings
by Joe Source, and Anointed by Buddy Jackson. All of the sculpture in the
Quadrangle was added when it was dedicated to the Chapmans in 2000.
Now turn around and look to the fourth floor, above the archway, at the windows
in the rooms overlooking the Quadrangle. Those actual windows are not original
to the building, but even these modern replacements have so much more glass
area because the rooms along that hallway were the original operating rooms
for Vanderbilt Hospital. In the 1920s, electric lights were not as bright
or efficient as today, and the windows helped let in daylight to help the
surgeons see. The building was not air conditioned in those days, and on hot
days the windows would be opened to provide ventilation. Somebody in the OR
would be given a fly swatter to keep insect intruders under control.
Speaking of insect intruders, notice the beautiful, stately trees in the Quadrangle.
These are elm trees, which were once common all over the Eastern U.S., but
most of which were killed in a blight. These are among the few surviving elms
of this age in the area, and the legend is that they survived because of the
shelter provided by the buildings.
Just beyond the MRB III and to the right is the School of Nursing, which is
mainly two buildings, Mary Ragland Godchaux Hall, which was built in 1925,
and Patricia Champion Frist Hall, which opened in 1998. The School of Nursing
has always had a close relationship with the Medical Center, but it wasn’t
officially part of VUMC until 1984. Before that it was a part of the college
of Arts and Science and was primarily focused on undergraduate education.
Under the leadership of Dean Colleen Conway-Welch, who came in 1984, the School
of Nursing eliminated its undergraduate degree in 1989 and transitioned to
its position as a nationally-known graduate school. The School of Nursing
has about 450 students and about 5,000 active alumni.
Re-enter the door under the arch and turn right. Walk to the intersection
of the T and C corridors.
Stop 3: The Gross Anatomy Lab. Behind these doors is the gross anatomy lab,
where generations of Vanderbilt medical students have learned anatomy by dissecting
cadavers. Vanderbilt has one of the most successful cadaver donation programs
in the country—so successful that there are only certain times of the
year that would-be donors are allowed to put their names on the waiting list
to donate a body.
Students are told to regard the cadaver they are dissecting with great respect,
in honor of the person and family who decided to give the body to further
science education. They are told, “The cadaver is your teacher; treat
it as you would your teacher.”
Every year there is a memorial service for people who have given their bodies
to Vanderbilt, and many students and faculty attend the service to honor their
cadaver “teachers.”
Taking either elevator 3 or the adjacent stairs, go up one floor to the second
floor. Turn right and walk a few steps to room C-2209—the Amphitheater.
Stop 4: The Amphitheater. This unusual two-story classroom with the porthole
window in the door is the original big meeting hall for the medical School.
The far wall was originally a two-story bank of windows looking out at the
trees and grass behind the building, but those were bricked up when the D
corridor was added in a 1938 expansion. Until the current School of Medicine
classroom building, Rudolph A. Light Hall, opened in 1978, the amphitheater
was the largest meeting room at the Medical Center. The Nashville Board of
Medical Examiners met here for years, part of the 1975 observance of Vanderbilt
University’s centennial was held here, and this was the location of regular
grand rounds for Medicine and Surgery. Notice the extra-wide door, which was
built that way so that patients’ gurneys could be rolled in while their
cases were discussed. That also accounts for the alarming slope upward of
the seating tiers—it was very important that everybody be able to see
as well as hear. The last time the room was remodeled was 1989, when most
of the seats were taken out and replaced with a seat-and-desk arrangement
and a then state-of-the-art audiovisual system was installed.
Continue down the C corridor past the intersection with the S corridor to
C-2120, a lab currently used by Dr. Raymond N. DuBois Jr.
Stop 5: Laboratory. Medical research is what sets an academic medical center
like Vanderbilt apart from other hospitals. Most of the labs at VUMC are located
in three buildings—The Preston Building, which is where most cancer research
is done, the Robinson Building, and, as we’ve already seen, Medical Research
Building III. (The Robinson Building was originally called MRB I and the Preston
Building was originally called MRB II, but both were renamed after the name
for MRB III was chosen. Whew.) Some research labs are also in Light Hall,
and, like this one, in Medical Center North.
Two of the most significant advances in American medicine in the prewar era
occurred in this building:
In 1933, Dr. Alfred Blalock and his research assistant Vivien Thomas conducted
pioneering research leading to the first cardiothoracic surgery for infants
born with “blue baby syndrome.” Blalock’s work was essential
to the development of open heart surgery.
And in the early 1940s, Dr. Ernest Goodpasture, who became Dean in 1944, developed
the method of culturing vaccines in chick embryos, which allowed the mass
production of vaccines for smallpox, typhus, and yellow fever.
Some other prominent research originated in these hallways, as well: Dr. Amos
Christie, chair of Pediatrics in the ’50s and ’60s, led a team that
achieved worldwide notice for pioneering work in histoplasmosis.
Patient care of newborns was revolutionized in 1961 at VUMC as Dr. Mildred
Stahlman founded the division of Neonatology and began the Vanderbilt NICU,
the first in the nation to make use of respiratory therapy for infants with
damaged lungs.
And Dr. Elliot Newman used grants from the U.S. Public Health Service to do
clinical research on several diseases, research that led, in 1960, to the
establishment of the federally funded Clinical Research Center which bears
Newman’s name—the first such center in the country.
Turn around and walk back to the S corridor and turn left, toward the rear
of the building. Turn left at the D corridor and exit the building and walk
in front of Eskind Biomedical Library.
Stop 6: In front of Eskind Biomedical Library. This architectural jewel was
opened in 1994. The library subscribes to more than 2,100 electronic journals
and other electronic resources, as well as maintains more than 200,000 print
journals and books. It is also the nerve center for the Medical Center’s
department of Biomedical Informatics, which seeks to understand how to gather
and make available to physicians information from both medical literature
and individual patient records. But as futuristic as that sounds, the Eskind
Library is also devoted to preserving the past, as the home to the Medical
Center Archives and to the Historical Collection. Among the jewels in that
collection are an excellent collection of 16th and 17th Century anatomical
atlases, a large collecton of antique medical instruments, and one of the
best collections on the history of nutrition—including cookbooks—in
the world.
The thing about this building that is most striking is the dramatic four-story
bank of windows. But, as you probably know, direct sunlight is an enemy of
printed material, so there was a lot of concern on the part of librarians.
But notice how the library building was oriented by the architects—that
wall of windows faces due north, so that daylight is available to people inside,
but direct sunlight never streams into the building through those north-facing
windows.
The library is also a wonderful repository of art. Outside are two beautiful
works of sculpture: the red steel Balanced/Unbalanced Beam by Fletcher Benton
on the plaza outside the front of the library, and on the lawn to the rear
is the bronze sculpture Flying Torso by Alan LeQuire. In the front lobby of
the library is a glass art work by artist Dale Chihuly called Indigo Seaform
with Red Lip Wraps. Further inside in the first floor main reading room are
two more display cases with Chihuly’s work, a semi-permanent exhibition
on loan from Judy Liff. Also, on the third floor just outside the elevator
on the right is a series of lithographs by Red Grooms illustrating some of
the figures on his Tennessee Foxtrot Carousel.
Continue walking south through the plaza.
Stop 7: Langford Auditorium. L.C. Langford Auditorium is a performance hall
and meeting place. It has seen everything from the Vice Chancellor for Health
Affairs’ annual State of the Medical Center addresses to former Vice
President Al Gore’s annual “Family Reunion” policy meetings.
It has had both the President and Vice President on its stage at the same
time, when Bill Clinton attended one of Gore’s meetings. Many musical
and cultural performances have also been held here, from chamber groups and
dance companies to Elvis Costello and the Attractions.
Langford Auditorium could be called “The House that Milkshakes Built.”
Lilburn C. Langford, whom the auditorium was named after, was a businessman
from Clarksville, Tenn., who developed a chain of soda fountains and restaurants,
some operated under the name Langford’s, and some within drug stores
and department stores.
In Nashville in the 1930s, Langford had two restaurants, one in the downtown
Arcade and one on Gallatin Road. Both sold various flavors of ice cream, and
one day Langford was inspired to take one of the most popular, a mixture of
chocolate and malt, and sell a softened version of it in a glass instead of
in a bowl. Langford’s culinary innovation—the malted milk—caught
on nationwide, and without those milkshakes, his name might not be on this
building. At its peak Langford’s company operated more than 100 restaurants.
He sold his company to Del Monte in 1969, and after his death in 1977 his
widow, Elizabeth Michaud Langford donated $ 1 million toward the construction
of the auditorium and, upon her death, donated another sum for upkeep.
And, speaking of restaurants, we can’t walk past here without pointing
out the McDonald’s. Several years ago the Medical Center cafeteria, called
the Courtyard Café, had gotten so popular that it was obvious that
more food service was needed at VUMC. McDonald’s wanted to open a location
here, the Medical Center needed the service, and it opened in 1995.
The sculpture on the plaza in front of the North Lobby entrance to Light Hall
is Con-volution by Jeremy Bond, a remarkable bronze work representational
of DNA.
Walk in the North Lobby of Light Hall, and turn right into the main hallway.
Note in passing: In the North Lobby of Light Hall, note the shovels hanging
on the wall. Those aren’t really shovels, they are one of the most treasured
awards at the Medical Center. The Shovel Award is voted on by the first-year
medical students and each year given to the faculty member they consider the
best teacher. The portrait in the North Lobby is Dr. Roscoe R. Robinson, who
was vice chancellor of Health Affairs from 1981 to 1997. Throughout Light
Hall, in the classrooms and hallways, are portraits of some of the faculty
members and leaders who have built Vanderbilt University Medical Center. You
can see some of these portraits along the walls of the main classrooms—202,
208, and 214—on the main floor.
Return to the North Lobby and walk up the stairs or ride the elevator one
floor, to the third floor.
Stop 8: Light Hall, Third Floor North Lobby.These portraits above the stairway
are of Dr. Rudolph A. Light, whom this building was named after, and his wife,
Ann Rork Light. Dr. Light was a graduate of the School of Medicine, a professor
of Surgery, director of the surgical research library, and a member of the
Board of Trust.
He was from a well-to-do family that made its money in the pharmaceutical
industry, and was here in medical school at the depth of the Great Depression.
He knew that many of his classmates were having a hard time having enough
money to live on. He wanted to quietly do something to help, so he let it
be known that he kept a charge account at a restaurant on 21st Avenue, and
allowed any medical student to eat there and charge it to his account. There
were several of his classmates who said they might have had to drop out of
medical school if it hadn’t been for his generosity at the diner.
Mrs. Light was a fascinating person, as well. Her father was a Hollywood producer
in the days of silent films, and she starred in several movies. It’s
probably not quite right to call her a siren of the silent screen, as much
as we would like to just be able to say that phrase, but she starred alongside
Will Rogers, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and Walter Pidgeon. Her movie titles included
The Notorious Lady and The Blonde Saint. Before her marriage to Light, she
was married to billionaire John Paul Getty.
Light Hall is the nerve center of the School of Medicine, which has about
420 students and more than 1,100 full-time faculty. Light Hall opened in 1978,
and it was this building that began the building boom at the Medical Center
that has really not let up yet.
Continue to South Lobby down the hallway—past the Medical Bookstore—to
the South Lobby.
Stop 9: Light Hall, Third Floor South Lobby. Here are portraits of the two
faculty members of Vanderbilt School of Medicine who have won the Nobel Prize.
On the right is Earl Sutherland, who won the Prize in 1971 for his discovery
of a substance called cyclic AMP. Cyclic AMP is important because it occurs
as an intermediate in the process of converting glycogen to glucose in the
liver, and when he discovered it, Sutherland theorized that it acts as what
he called a “second messenger,” carrying instructions from the first
messenger, a hormone, into the cells. That insight still forms the basis of
the way scientists describe how hormones work in the body.
On the left is Stanley Cohen, who shared the Nobel in 1986 with Rita Levi-Montalcini
for their discovery of growth factors. What Cohen had noticed was that when
he injected salivary gland extract into newborn mice, their eyes opened faster
than they otherwise would. In other words, something was speeding up a natural
process. That something was epidermal growth factor, and Cohen’s work
laid the foundation for the study of growth factors and the mechanisms regulating
the growth and survival of cells—information that is of critical importance
to understanding cancer.
Walk or ride back down to the second floor (the plaza level) and exit onto
the plaza. Turn right and walk toward the entrance to the Ann and Roscoe Robinson
Medical Research Building.
Stop 10: In front of Robinson Research Building. Dr. Roscoe R. Robinson was
vice chancellor for Health Affairs from 1981 to 1997—we saw his portrait
in the north lobby of Light Hall—and after his retirement this building
was named for him and his wife Ann. It’s very fitting that Dr. Robinson
have a building named after him because most of the building boom of the ‘80s
and ‘90s at the Medical Center was due to his vision. The building opened
in 1989 and was originally known as the Medical Research Building, or MRB.
The four lighted works of sculpture in the wall near the entrance of the Robinson
building is a work called Cellular Micrograph by artist Karen Heyl. The work
depicts four different types of cells and shows the artistic beauty that lies
at the heart of the very cells from which life is made.
The building next door, actually connected to the Robinson building, is called
the Frances Williams Preston Building, named after the CEO of Broadcast Music,
Inc., who has been involved in sponsoring and supporting cancer research at
Vanderbilt. The Preston Building—it opened in 1995 and was originally
called MRB II—is the home of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, the
only National Institutes of Health-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center
in Tennessee.
So here, on this west side of the plaza, are buildings dedicated to education
and research—two of the three missions of VUMC. Now let’s turn and
look at the east side of the plaza, the homes of the third mission of the
Medical Center—patient care.
Vanderbilt University Hospital, the building, as you face east, on your left,
opened in 1980. It replaced the old Vanderbilt Hospital in Medical Center
North. VUH has about 650 licensed beds and more than 30,000 admissions a year
and, until the new Children’s Hospital opens in fall 2003, is also the
home of Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. There are eight intensive care
units at Vanderbilt, all but one of them in this building—Surgical, Neonatal,
Pediatric, Medical, Cardiac, Trauma, Neurological, and Burn.
Next door is The Vanderbilt Clinic, which opened in 1988 and is the home of
most of the specialty clinics and doctors’ offices at Vanderbilt. TVC
is only four stories tall, but don’t let that fool you—this building
has more than half a million square feet, making it bigger than some downtown
skyscrapers. And it needs to be that big—close to 700,000 doctor visits
happen here every year.
Where you are standing, between buildings dedicated to education and research
on one side and buildings dedicated to patient care on the other, is a good
vantage point to visualize the mission of an academic health center. One of
the great goals of a place like Vanderbilt is to take the education and knowledge
from the west side of the plaza and make sure it gets across to the east side
of the plaza, where it can help patients.
Wind around the exterior walk outside the Robinson Building, and pass through
the glassed-in breezeway and walk south into the courtyard between the Preston
Building and The Vanderbilt Clinic. Enter TVC at the door opening onto the
courtyard opposite the Preston Building. Take the spiral stairway or the elevator
down to the first floor, turn right, and walk out through the front lobby
of TVC onto the sidewalk of 22nd Ave. S. Turn right and walk to the corner.
Stop 11: Corner of 22nd Ave. S. and Capers Ave. This is a good vantage point
to see several important locations at the Medical Center.
The granite building under construction on the southwest corner of the intersection
is the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, which will
open in the fall of 2003. This new children’s hospital will offer a full
range of health services all under one roof and will be the only freestanding
children’s hospital in Middle Tennessee. It’ll have nearly 800,000
square feet and will include both a hospital and an outpatient center for
all specialty and subspecialty areas of care. There will be 206 beds, and
all of the rooms will be big enough for parents to stay with their children.
There will also be computers at every bedside, so that kids and parents can
keep in touch, and also learn and play. It’s going to be neat.
To the far right, beyond the Children’s Hospital, is the Page-Campbell
Heart Institute, the state-of-the-art cardiology facility that opened in 1997.
To the far left and across 21st Avenue South is The Village at Vanderbilt,
which houses several Medical Center clinics and offices, including the Vanderbilt
Voice Center and the Vanderbilt Breast Center.
On the southeast corner of the intersection is the Kim Dayani Human Performance
Center, a health facility dedicated to exercise and fitness.
At the end of the block, you can see part of the Vanderbilt Stallworth Rehabilitation
Hospital, which takes care of people who don’t need to be in the main
hospital any more, but who need rehabilitation before they can go home.
And around the corner to the right is the Psychiatric Hospital at Vanderbilt,
which opened in 1985 as a Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Hospital and converted
to caring for both children and adults several years ago.
Turn and walk north along 22nd Ave. S., back toward the site where the tour
began.
Note as walking: You can see the helipad on the roof of the hospital from
the street. The LifeFlight program began at Vanderbilt over the Fourth of
July weekend in 1984, with one single-engine helicopter that could carry one
patient. Now there are three helicopters, all of which can carry two patients.
One craft is based here, one in Clarksville, and one in Shelbyville, to cover
the region better. More than 1,200 patients arrive here by helicopter every
year.
LifeFlight is one of the services that Vanderbilt offers that no other hospital
in the region has. Others are our Level 1 Trauma Center, our Pediatric Emergency
Department, a Level 4 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (remember, NICU was invented
at Vanderbilt), our Level 3 Burn Center, and the Middle Tennessee Poison Control
Center. All of these save lives every year, and they are all unique in this
region to Vanderbilt.
Under construction to the right across the street is the new home of the Vanderbilt
Bill Wilkerson Center, which is a comprehensive diagnosis and treatment facility
for, among other things, hearing and speech services. This building will also
house the new Musculoskeletal Institute, and perhaps, the Comprehensive Diabetes
Center.
Medical Center East, the glass building atop the hospital parking garage,
opened in 1992 to give some expansion space to clinics that had outgrown The
Vanderbilt Clinic. We’ve discussed all through this tour the way the
place has grown. Vanderbilt Medical Center came to this site in 1925 in order
to grow, and growth has been one of the constants since then. But the real
legacy of the place isn’t the buildings, it’s the babies that are
born here, the patients who are cared for here, the medical research that
is done here, the nursing and medical students and scientists who are educated
here—and that legacy is added to every day. Perhaps its fitting that
the work of art that we see at this corner is a sculpture by Herb Alpert called
Guardian Spirit.
End tour at 22nd Ave. S. and Garland Ave.