ntcKcom
duke univeusity mcdicM ccnteR
VOLUME 18, NUMBER 22
JUNE 11, 1971
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
Eye Center Contract Awarded
Sight has been called the most
important of man's five senses. More than
80 per cent of the sensory input to the
brain comes from the eyes. Because of
man's dependence on vision, treatment of
eye diseases has long been one of the
major tasks of medicine.
Duke University has just taken a
major step toward more comprehensive
treatment of eye disease and research into
the causes of blindness with the award of
contracts for a Duke University Eye
Center to be built on the medical campus.
The Robert H. Pinnix Co. of
Gastonia has been named general
contractor for the Eye Center. The
company submitted the low bid of
$2,546,950. Construction of the
three-story, 67,000-square-foot facility is
slated to start during the summer and is
scheduled for completion in 18 to 24
months.
The Eye Center, to be located across
Erwin Road from the Veterans
Administration Hospital, will include a
43-bed inpatient unit, operating rooms, a
22,000-square-foot outpatient clinic and
one complete floor of research
laboratories.
"The Eye Center will be primarily a
referral center for the entire Southeast,"
Dr. Joseph A. C. Wadsworth, chairman of
the Department of Ophthalmology,
explained.
"There is no comparable eye
institute between the Wilmer Eye
Institute in Baltimore and the Bascom
Palmer Eye Institute in Miami," he said.
Planners estimate that the total
project will cost $3.7 million, all of which
will come from private sources.
Designed by the Six Associates of
Asheville, the structure will be
step-shaped, made of Duke's traditional
Hillsborough stone in aggregate panels
with precast concrete and steel
reinforcement.
The ground floor will contain over
20,000 square feet of research
DUKE'S NEW EYE CENTER—Here is an architect's drawing of the $3.7
million Eye Center Duke will build near the VA Hospital. The Center, which will serve
both inpatients and outpatients, should be completed in 18 to 24 months, (photo
courtesy of the Planning Office} (See additional photo, page 3)
laboratories and support facilities
including an electron microscope, an
ophthalmologic X-ray department, a laser
operating room, a photography
department, conference rooms, and
animal care facilities. Research carried
out in this area will include investigation
of the management of cancer of the eye,
studies on corneal transplantation and
research on diseases that affect the retina,
such as diabetes and macular
degeneration.
The first floor will contain the
outpatient clinic including examination
and treatment rooms and offices for the
seven staff ophthalmologists and nine
residents in training, as well as additional
space for medical students in training and
postdoctoral fellows.
A Children's Clinic will be located
on this floor and will provide facilities for
the examination and treatment of
.congenital eye defects, infantile glaucoma
and inherited eye tumors. The Eye Center
Children's Clinic will permit a doubling of
the number of patients currently being
seen in the children's eye department at
Duke.
The first floor also will contain a
tumor clinic in which malignant tumors
in adults will be studied. A glaucoma
clinic will provide patients with the latest
methods of diagnosis and treatment of
this serious eye disease.
A retina clinic will be available for
the management of retinal detachment,
congenital retinal disease and other
retinal problems, such as diabetic
retinopathy. Also located on the first
floor will be areas for contact lenses and
glasses fitting.
The top floor of the Eye Center will
be entirely devoted to inpatient care with
43 hospital rooms and two complete
operating room suites. The operating
rooms will be immediately adjacent to
the patient rooms, facilitating the
movement of patients to and from
surgery.
Each patient room will have a
second bed available which can be used
for parents who wish to remain with the
young patients overnight or for relatives
of adult patients. Several of the larger
rooms will be converted to double rooms
for pediatric patients when necessary.