A makeover for Methodist

It's almost like old times on Property Lines: Check out this rendering of a planned new tower for Methodist Hospital at Capitol Avenue and 18th Street. Clarian Health is planning a bed tower, parking garage and offices in a massive project that shows renewed commitment to the downtown campus, IBJ's J.K. Wall reports. The project, which will feature up to 250 private patient rooms, is expected to cost between $375 million and $500 million. Clarian hopes to start construction in the fall of 2012, with completion by 2015. Since the 1997 creation of Clarian as a joint venture of Methodist and the Indiana University School of Medicine, Methodist has seen only one modest expansion, in 2002. Meanwhile, Clarian has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into its two other downtown hospitals—Indiana University Hospital and Riley Hospital for Children—and also built outlying hospitals in Avon, Carmel, Lafayette and now Fishers. Methodist Hospital nearly doubled in size when it constructed its main entrance along Senate Boulevard in the 1980s. It added a new trauma unit in 1995. But privately, Clarian officials told Wall they have ignored the Methodist hub for too long. What do you think?

UPDATE: I've posted a second rendering here. Also, click on the image above for a larger version. A Clarian Health spokeswoman tells me the design is by HOK.