New is old and old is new again

Originally founded in 1905, KU Med has been at its current 39th and Rainbow location since the 1920s. By the late 1970s, a new hospital was needed.

And when that shiny new hospital was ready in 1979, of course we needed a sign ...

... apparently so you could find it ... um ... once you're already inside it?


This sign is located in a hospital corridor. Hmmm ....


In the late 1980s, patients suffering from high levels of X-ray exposure were having a difficult time finding their way to their appointments. So radiology wanted a sign, too. They coveted the hospital sign's spot and questioned if the hospital was really "new" anymore. They argued it had been around for a decade already.

The campus policy, unfortunately, was that once a sign was installed, it could not be removed without the governor's signature.


So radiology was left to add their sign above the existing one. They also made it four times bigger as a form of protest over state sign policy. Both signs remain in place today.

The hospital expansion currently underway on the northeast side of campus is the latest is a long history of progress and growth ...

Rendering of a $279 million Cambridge North tower of The University of Kansas Hospital on the corner of 39th and Cambridge streets.

And now, decades later, the sign can finally be moved over to State Line Road so it will again point to the "new hospital." 

 

This is yet another example of how we're saving signs from the landfill, just like we showed in re-sign-cling last year.

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