McEwin block joins six heritage old hospital buildings fronting Lot Fourteen innovation precinct, Adelaide city
The six historic and state-heritage-listed former Royal Adelaide Hospital buildings giving a North Terrace, Adelaide city, frontage to the Lot Fourteen innovation precinct concept (from right) the Bice building, McEwin building, Sheridan building (in front), allied service building, outpatients/women's health centre building and Maragret Graham nurses' home.
Image courtesy Renewal SA
The McEwin operating theatre block opened in 1946, was the last of South Australian state-heritage-listed original Royal Adelaide Hospital buildings to became the North Terrace frontage for the 21st Century Lot Fourteen innovation precinct on North Terrace east, Adelaide city.
An operating theatre for the hospital was part of the 1922 list of required buildings but it wasn’t until 1939 that formal plans were prepared. Before its construction, there were only two inadequate general operating theatres at the hospital, with a large backlog of operations. World War II intervened and the building wasn't ready until 1946.
Named after state government health minister Alexander Lyell McEwin, the building was described as the most important landmark in the hospital's history. The McEwin Building was equipped with nine operating wards for general and for special purposes, as well as wards for medical and surgical cases. It was described at least equal to anything of its kind in Australia. But other buildings at the hospital were criticised as a step back in time. In 1964 additions were made to McEwin to provide accommodation for the pulmonary function unit and additional space for the transfusion service.
As part of the Lot Fourteen innovation precinct, the McEwin building had $30 million refurbishment in 2018 to provide 300 workspaces across four levels for entrepreneurs and global businesses in the fast-growing industries and clusters of defence and space technologies. JPE Desgin Studio was architect for the work carried out by Hansen Yuncken.
The refurbishment of the McEwin Building added to the modernising of six heritage and historic Royal Adelaide Hospital buildings to be used by Lot Fourteen activities. The six buildings had a cohesive design aesthetic originating with the design for the former Margaret Graham nurses' home completed in 1911. The essence of this style was further elaborated in the Bice Building (completed 1927) and repeated in later buildings in the North Terrace group, including the outpatients building/women's health centre and allied health services building (both completed in 1935) and the McEwin building (1946).
These four finely-detailed multi-storey buildings were complemented by the simplified tempietto (temple-like) form of the small central Sheridan Building (1925).
