J and K Wings viewed from the green roof of the Foege Building loading dock
The Warren G. Magnuson Health Sciences Center is a university hospital part of the University of Washington campus in Seattle and the one of the largest buildings in the United States with a total floor area of 5.8 million square feet (540,000 m2).[1] Although the building is made up of over 20 wings built over more than 50 years, the interior hallways are fully connected. The Magnuson Health Sciences Building is also referred to as the Health Sciences Building or Health Sciences Complex.
Construction of the original Health Sciences Building began in 1947 on what had been the University Golf Links south of Pacific Street along Portage Bay.[2] It had eight wings denoted A through G featuring sculptures by Dudley Pratt and was designed by architecture firm Naramore, Bain, Brady, Johanson, McCellan & Jones (later NBBJ).[3] A commemorative plaque inside the original C-Wing lobby notes that it had "about 3,000,000 square feet of space." However, the original architectural design is largely obscured by later additions, particularly the brutalist T-Wing along Pacific St.[citation needed] The original building was dedicated on October 9, 1949.[1]
