Prentice Women's Hospital
Bertrand Goldberg's four-lobed concrete hospital lost a national preservation campaign and was demolished for a medical research site.
Quick facts
- Existence state
- Officially Gone
- Peak stage
- general availability
- Research confidence
- high
- Last verified
What it was
A Chicago women's hospital designed by Bertrand Goldberg with a distinctive cloverleaf concrete tower.
The building grouped patient rooms around four nursing cores above a rectilinear base. Its structure and care model were widely studied as an attempt to humanise a large hospital.
Existence timeline
Goldberg's office and engineers shape the four-lobed hospital tower.
Patients and staff begin using the new facility.
The original building loses its medical programme.
A major preservation effort cannot secure permanent protection.
The concrete tower and base are removed.
Why it ended
Northwestern University argued that the site was needed for new research facilities. Landmark efforts failed and demolition proceeded in 2013–2014.
Last confirmed trace
Models, drawings, photographs, engineering studies and salvaged elements remain in archives and museums.
What it left behind
The campaign made Prentice a central test of whether late-modern concrete architecture could earn preservation protection.
How we classified it
The archive unit reached normal public release or operation and is no longer obtainable in its original public form.
Verified normal public availability maps to 100 under Arrival Score V1.
Sources & verification
Last reviewed 2026-08-01. Sources are linked so readers can inspect the evidence directly.