Question of the Day - 30 January 2020

The building you're referring to is the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, located at 888 West Bonneville Avenue. It is surreal; looking at it directly can give you acid flashbacks. And it was designed by world-renowned architect and artist Frank Gehry.

The building is owned by Keep Memory Alive, a non-profit organization started by local businessman Larry Ruvo and casino executive and poker player Bobby Baldwin, both of whom lost their fathers to Alzheimer's disease. The foundation's mission is to elevate consciousness of Alzheimer's and dementia, give patients the most sensitive environment possible for treatment, and help find a cure for these distressing and currently incurable diseases.

Larry Ruvo recalls one of the worst days of his life as being when he took his father, Lou, who was in the early stages of Alzheimer's, to a hospital where he was surrounded in the waiting room by patients in advanced stages of the disease -- one was in a diaper and another unable to hold his head up. So one of the criteria for Gehry's design was to avoid mingling patients at various stages of the disease. There are no waiting rooms at the Ruvo Clinic; instead, a valet greets patients and calls ahead so they can be immediately ushered to their rooms. The hallways use natural light and soft colors to create a calming environment, rather than the sterile feeling of a typical clinic, and are adorned with artwork.

The dramatic exterior of the building seems to reference the disintegration of memory caused by Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. The principal element of the design uses 550 interlocking stainless steel pieces, no two alike, set at all sorts of angles, which gives the impression that the roof and facade have somehow melted. The Center, which opened on July 13, 2009, is planned to become a national resource for the most current research and scientific information for the treatment of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's Diseases, and ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease), as well as focusing on prevention, early detection, and education.

While some have criticized the design as being insensitive to the building's purpose, Gehry himself was pleased with the outcome, saying he wanted it to stand out from "the cacophony" of high-rise casinos and condos. "It took my breath away," he said. "I like the way it fits. I wasn't trying to compete with the chaos around it. Some people may think it's over the top. I don't think so."

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