Weill Cornell Medical Center

When you look at the towering structure of the Weill Cornell Medical Center, you are seeing a site that was specifically designed to be a temple of modern medicine during the Great Depression. Its construction in the early nineteen thirties required the demolition of local row houses and the Central Brewing Company, transforming the York Avenue landscape into an alabaster monument. The architects took inspiration from the historic Palace of the Popes in Avignon, France, creating a central tower that rose twenty-seven stories above the East River. This strategic placement was intentional, as the planners insisted that the medical college buildings be positioned so that the patients in the hospital would have the best views of the water.