McGlothlin Medical Education Center

Pei Cobb Freed and Partners
2013
1201 East Marshall Street

Once a collection of high class antebellum town homes, Richmond’s Court End neighborhood is now totally dominated by the VCU Medical Center. Each new building has increased the scale and intensity of the area which is one of the city’s most densely built.

When it was completed in 2013, the James W. and Frances C. McGlothlin Medical Education Center replaced the 7 story A.D. Williams Clinic, the little sister of the neighboring art deco West Hospital, the 12 story McGlothlin Building pairs with the remaining tower beautifully. The pleasing contrast between the textured brick of the old West Hospital and the glassy weightlessness of its new companion is a model for other projects in Richmond.

New York based architectural practice Pei Cobb Freed designed the McGlothlin Medical Education Center in the mode for which the office is famous. The angularity of the project and the clean lines drawn from the sidewalk to the top of the facade recall the firm’s past works, particularly those of renowned partner I. M. Pei. Traces of the National Gallery East Wing and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library are obvious in the building’s massing. The McGlothlin building’s detailing is immaculate. In a nod to the A.D. Williams Clinic’s architectural significance, its original entrances have been preserved and presented as sculpture in front of the building’s Marshall Street facade.

The main entrance opens into an attractive, light washed two-story lobby. The gentle creams and grays and subtle wall textures result are sterile yet comforting: an appropriate ambiance for a medical building. The legacy of the Williams Clinic is again acknowledged through the preservation and display of a large WPA era mural from the old lobby. A contributor to both the neighborhood and to the vital functions of the city’s largest hospital, the McGlothlin Medical Education Center is an outstanding addition to Court End.

DOK