Under Construction

When I was a child, I was never all that interested in construction. I didn't play with Fisher-Price trucks, never wore a construction hat. I was more curious about astronomy and dinosaurs. But as I walk through the hospital now and see the transformation of the campus as new buildings and structures go up, I can't help but be amazed. The building of the new Stanford Hospital isn't the most convenient thing; patients have to navigate around construction sites and parking can be frustrating. And it's such a long-term project that I'm not sure I'll be at Stanford when the new hospital opens in 2018. But it's also really cool just to see everything happen. Each week, I see new changes; pylons and pipes and infrastructure and walkways. The cranes outside the pediatric hospital are mindboggling. The amount of dirt removed from the construction zone is tremendous. What a project. It's also a bit strange to think that the areas where I locked my bike intern year have been demolished and the secret shortcuts I would take are gone. Hospitals feel like structures that simultaneously never change and are always under construction.

Image from sumcrenewal.org, shown under Fair Use.