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Indiana University Health plans to demolish the vast majority of Methodist Hospital after the health system opens its new, $4.3 billion downtown hospital just a block away in 2027, a senior executive said Wednesday.
“There will be some buildings that are historic that will remain,” said Dr. Ryan Nagy, president of IU Health’s adult academic health center, which includes Methodist and University hospitals. He did not specify which buildings would survive.
Methodist Hospital was built in another age—before penicillin, insulin, organ transplants or open-heart surgery. When the hospital opened its doors in 1908, Theodore Roosevelt was in the White House.
Today, Methodist Hospital is a hodgepodge of buildings stemming from the the intersection of 16th Street and North Capitol Avenue that have been stitched together over the decades, with mismatched floor plates, uneven ceilings and a conglomeration of electrical, mechanical and plumbing systems.
“If I were to take you on a tour of the buildings currently, they’ve served us well, but there are components of Methodist that, literally, the engineering is out of the Civil War,” Nagy said.
He said IU Health officials have studied the current Methodist buildings for different possible uses, including administrative offices and clinics.
“We’ve looked at every angle,” Nagy said Wednesday morning in a fireside chat at IBJ’s Health Care & Benefits Power Breakfast at the Westin Indianapolis. “Could we use that for other components of the enterprise? And it doesn’t make much sense.”
One exception, he said, is to keep one newer building of the Methodist campus furnished with 140 beds and additional operating rooms, in case the new hospital unexpectedly runs short of space.
“We’ll keep that functional but mothballed,” Nagy said. “Think of it as your life raft.”
The new hospital will have three patient towers that each rise 16 floors. Altogether, it will contain 864 beds and 50 operating rooms.
Nagy said IU Health made a decision in 2022 to put in a foundation for a fourth tower, in case demand scales up and warrants hundreds more beds.
The new hospital, which has yet to be named, will stretch across a 40-acre site just south of Methodist Hospital. Construction is still underway, with patients set to move in near the end of 2027.
The new hospital will consolidate the existing Methodist Hospital and University Hospital, located about 1.5 miles to the southwest on the IU Indianapolis campus. The eight-block expansion will extend IU Health’s footprint south to 12th Street and from Capitol Avenue to Interstate 65.
The complex will include a medical office building, a support building that will contain parking, a utility plant and retail space. It will also be home to the Indiana University School of Medicine’s education and research building.
Dennis Murphy, CEO of IU Health, told the Economic Club of Indiana earlier this year that the new hospital will save $50 million a year in heating, lighting and other operational costs, compared with the two existing downtown hospitals. It will also treat some of the sickest patients in the state, he said.
“That’s why this hospital is really an investment in the health of Hoosiers,” Murphy told the Economic Club audience. “It’s how we continue to bring health to the state. And I think we are the only organization in the state who can take care of the truly complex and the sick.”
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Well, I’m delighted they are buidling a new hospital but very sad they are demolishing the old Methodist. I was born there and it is a classic old building. In Europe they likely would have repurposed the building but we don’t do that here. We tear down and build new.
The mechanical and electrical systems are so outdated in some parts of the building, that cost to bring into code are prohibitive!
Any word on what will happen to the University Hospital and Simon Cancer Center buildings once they’re vacated? I would guess the med school buildings could be somewhat easily used by IUI for additional classrooms or teaching lab space.
According to an article in the Washington Times in 2020 the center will be closed within 6 years and the center will move to the new campus or near the new campus. They have been investing heavily in the cancer center at IU North as well.
Timothy F, thanks.
I do not understand why they would not convert this to housing. The air filtration systems are in place, the plumbing is in place. This could be 1 and 2 bedroom units and studios/efficiencies for all income levels. There is onsite parking. Unlike commercial office space that is crazy expensive to convert, this seems like the perfect opportunity.
Does seem odd.
Doesn’t seem to be the least bit practical, or doable. I imagine that kind of conversion would be cost prohibitive.
A hospital conversion to housing would be just as expensive as office, especially with a building of this age. While there is plumbing in place, it is not spaced/oriented for housing layouts, and the entire interior and MEP system would still need to be gutted just like an office conversion.
Correction for IBJ: Capitol Avenue, not Capital Avenue.
Good news!
If the can keep the oldest, original building it could serve as a museum showing the evolution of health care technology and methods of treatment.
The hospitals are doing great. The insurance companies are doing great. Patients and doctors, not so much. The American health care system!
I’m excited about the new hospital project and IU Health’s leadership. At the same time, there’s great potential in repurposing parts of the historic Methodist Hospital. Rather than seeing these buildings as outdated, they could be transformed into housing or offices, preserving their unique character.
Keeping the visual variety of historic structures could enhance the area, especially with so much surface parking and bland urban planning. It’s a chance to blend old and new for the city’s benefit. The costs of preservation don’t have to be prohibitive—many projects have successfully modernized historic buildings. I challenge IU Health to take another look. With creativity, we can find practical, cost-effective ways to preserve what makes this site special while advancing into the future.
They could consider the old building for a mental health treatment facility.