Rise of the Modern Hospital

A major contribution to healthcare design both for the clear documentation of a critical period in the architectural evolution of our field and for pointing to questions regarding the balance of patients needs, efficiency, and building topologies that we continue to wrestle with today. Anyone working in the planning and design of hospitals, particularly younger professionals who may be engaged in this field for the first time, will find value in its publication.

Rise of the Modern Hospital is an excellent scholarly resource on the development of a pivotal building type during a dynamic period, especially relevant given our renewed interest in the ways that health and architecture interact.

A basic reference for anyone starting to research the topic of health and architecture, particularly thanks to its very rich and complete bibliographical references and a brilliant bibliographic essay.

. . . Masterful survey of American hospital design. . . . Kisacky provides an architectural history that draws upon and contributes to the history of medicine in a way few other studies of the built environment of health care have done.

This is a book which should be in the library of anyone concerned with the built environment as well as the history of medical care. . . . The author (and her publisher) are to be congratulated on the book's constructive and generous use of visual materials, photographs, plans, and architectural renderings. It is, in short, an admirable contribution to interdisciplinary scholarship.

This is a monumental work on hospitals in the United States from the 1870s to World War II, an influential period that saw the end of the pavilion plan and the advent of the high-rise hospital. As the first book-length study to address the architectural implications of the germ theory, it is destined to become a classic in the history of hospitals.

In her meticulously researched history of modern American hospitals, Kisacky examines the frequently elusive purposes and consequences of architectural design. Forged at the confluence of shifting medical requirements and broader cultural, civic, and economic values, her hospitals mirror in form and function the collective understanding of human well-being.