Mariners Medical Arts Center

Mariners Medical Arts Center

In his plan for the Mariners Medical Arts Center, a compound commissioned by eleven doctors, Richard Neutra achieved a successful urban design. The group of three small buildings, which is located along a busy shopping street, is neighborly while maintaining Neutra’s signature, modernist aesthetic. The welcoming design exemplified Neutra’s thesis that a medical clinic need not be a forbidding or intimidating institution. Privacy, successful illumination, and access to nature were key tactics in communicating this value. Visitors enter through a garden that fills the space between two buildings, constitution a lobby for the site. The lush tropical plants and reflecting pools offer a calming presence for visitors, something particularly effective for anyone visiting the psychiatric offices which can be reached only by walking the full length of the gardens to the rear of the buildings. Asymmetrically laid walkways between the buildings are covered with vertical metal louvers to provide the visitor with a greater sense of protection. Neutra’s clients were engaged in this process of crafting a better experience for patients. For example, dentist Thomas W. Doan shared with Neutra a study of the effects of various lighting conditions on a group of rats, directing him to find lighting that both increased the dentist’s concentration while decreasing the patient’s focus.

Adapted from Neutra – Complete Works by Barbara Lamprecht (Taschen, 2000), p. 426.