The Board of Regents on June 16 approved the demolition of the Parkview Medical Center and the Scott and Amy Prudden Turner Memorial Clinic buildings, which housed eye clinics and operating rooms for the Department of Ophthalmology — and eventually the W.K. Kellogg Eye Center — or more than 30 years.
The demolition of the buildings, part of the U-M Health System master plan, will allow for additional patient parking and a new entrance to the eye center southeast of the Kellogg complex. All Kellogg eye clinics and its surgical center now are located in the eye center’s Brehm Tower, which opened in March 2010 to accommodate an expanding patient population.
Above is a view of the entire Kellogg Eye Center complex including the one-story Parkview Medical Center and the Scott and Amy Prudden Turner Memorial Clinic buildings. Photo by Scott Soderberg, U-M Photo Services.
In 1970, when patients were hospitalized after eye surgeries, the Department of Ophthalmology was given space in the Parkview Building to open an operating room with 40 inpatient beds. While that move consolidated surgical activities, eye clinics and other offices still were scattered throughout the medical campus.
In 1979 regents approved renovating the Parkview and Turner buildings for use as ophthalmology clinics. At the same time, funds were approved for a comprehensive eye and research center, which was dedicated in 1985 as the W.K. Kellogg Eye Center.
The architectural firm SmithGroup will design the current project, with construction scheduled to be completed by fall 2012. The estimated cost of the project is $5 million, with funding provided through U-M Hospitals and Health Centers’ resources.
