Beekman Downtown Hospital was a Manhattan hospital serving New York’s financial district, formed in 1945 when the Beekman Hospital and the Downtown Hospital consolidated and announced plans to build a new, more centrally located facility under the combined name Beekman-Downtown Hospital.[1] The institution underwent several name changes over the decades, becoming New York Infirmary-Beekman Downtown Hospital in 1981, then N.Y.U. Downtown Hospital, and later New York Downtown Hospital.[2] Following a full merger in 2013 with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, it was renamed NewYork-Presbyterian/Lower Manhattan Hospital.[3]
Design and History
In the late 1960s, the hospital underwent a period of modernization as part of an extensive urban renewal project for Manhattan, introducing new facilities and technologies. A new visual identity program was developed during the same period to outwardly convey the hospital’s modernized facilities, improve communication, and minimize production costs. This economic consideration was particularly important because the hospital was funded through donations, so the cost of printing and postage had to be carefully balanced with community communication.[4]
Philip Gips, who had been responsible for the hospital’s annual reports, was responsible for developing the new visual identity and logo.[4] Gips was an American graphic designer known for film posters and for creating logos for ESPN, A&E, and the History Channel.[5] His firm, Gips & Danne, had designed the hospital’s annual report for 1966, which was exhibited in the AIGA’s “Design and Printing for Commerce” collection of 1968.[6]
The logo was applied across signage and printed materials with a metallic gold where possible, and as process gold elsewhere. In instances such as ambulances, the logo was used in red.[4]
Meaning and Symbolism
The logo employs a cross motif, an international symbol for medical care and first aid. The dimensional element lends the cross a distinctive and dynamic element. This implication of depth and direction, and the open right-hand corner, was said to express the hospital’s deep commitment to delivering medical services to the community and suggest progress into the future.[4]
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