Tufts New England Medical Center, Boston Floating Hospital

Beginning in the 1890s, a boat cruising Boston Harbor was launched as a fresh-air program for ghetto children; in addition, it provided free medical care. Though it is landlocked now, the objective has extended to a family medicine system specializing in pediatric medicine. The merging of three separate institutions and schools of medicine and dentistry aimed to provide a more up-to-date teaching facility. At the same time, the center's presence helped to revive a deteriorating part of downtown Boston. Years later, the work is still in progress. Legibility is difficult because of the center's situation on major arteries—Washington and Kneeland streets. The addition of the Boston Floating Hospital serves to connect the complex by forming a bridge across Washington Street, defined by a raised diagonal slab. Nautical elements are visible on the exterior in industrial corrugated aluminum and on the interior in tubular metal railings. Notable details that lend a high-tech quality to the whole are the long, narrow bands of windows, the red structural frame extending to the street's overpass, the strong diagonal shapes and curved access ramps, and the columnar piers of the main building that lift it above the ground.