PARKING CRISIS AVERTED at UPHS-Marquette.
Hospital officials have found more spaces on the campus and plan to lay gravel in them to provide adequate parking for the employees. It’ll happen before the hospital’s official opening on June 2nd.
Marketing director Victor Harrington says the gravelled areas will then be paved later in the year.
A couple of weeks ago, officials disclosed that plans for the new hospital didn’t include sufficient parking for employees. They were a few hundred spaces short. The company charged with determining the parking needs of UPHS-Marquette had assumed that, as in more urban hospitals, many Marquette doctors, nurses, techs and administrators would arrive by public transportation.
Wrong. Public transportation is limited here.
In any case, problem solved, after that initial embarrassment.
And to defuse a rumor, no, the new parking area does not displace the as-yet unbuilt Beacon House on the hospital campus. CEO Mary Tavernini Dowling says they still have a dedicated space for their facility on campus, and they’ll start building when they’ve raised enough money for it.
WHO DOESN’T LOVE giant outside murals?
(Well, giant outside artistic murals, at least.)
One is being planned for a 60′ by 25′ wall at the corner of Third and Ohio Streets, just across from Contrast Coffee. It’ll be a community project directed by renowned artist Mia Tavonatti. Take a look at her work. She’s something special.
She’ll be designing the mural but she’ll also enlist the help of about twenty local painters and students to help her complete the project. It starts in September and should take about three weeks. We’ll all be able to watch as it’s happening.
It’s a Power of Words project in which locals can vote on the overall theme of the mural. You can vote here and also contribute to the project. MEDC will match the funds raised for the Marquette mural.
Several other murals have already been painted around the U.P.
Now about the wall, itself: It’s actually the exterior of Be Well, a collaborative wellness center that’s been in the works for a couple of years now. Not open yet, and no sign outside, but co-owner Kate Lewandowski expects it to open in October, after the mural is completed.