Charity Hospital is an ever-looming presence in the city. For generations “Big Charity” served as the city’s safety net hospital. Generations of families gave birth, worked, and died in that hospital. Physicians who trained in Charity talk about it like they are reminiscing about a summer with an old flame that was so passionate and so formative. Charity is still a sore subject in New Orleans. A Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the FEMA, the Army Corps of Engineers, and volunteers had Charity ready for patients. LSU representatives along with then Governor Kathleen Blanco ordered the power turned off at the grid and declared that the hospital would never reopen. LSU had wanted a new facility for some time and was able to secure funding to build University Medical Center (UMC), which was completed in 2015 after eminent domain writs allowed for the demolition of hundreds of homes in the Mid-City area of New Orleans. Ideas of what to do with Big Charity have ranged from apartments to shopping malls to city hall, but it still remains abandoned to date. For an amazing photo-essay on Charity Hospital, check out Abandoned Southeast’s Blog and to learn more about the tragic end to this amazing hospital, the documentary Big Charity is a must see.

I wanted Charity to be the centerpiece of the design. I also wanted to try and incorporate the into the H like the Helipad “H”. While it’s not the most recognizable symbol of New Orleans, it means something to the people here.

The rest of the designs played off the Charity theme. One incorporating probably the best known symbol for New Orleans, the Fleur de Lis.

The second version added the Superdome, another infamous symbol from Huricane Katrina, but also a centerpiece of the New Orleans skyline.

The last tried to convey an angelic theme to the idea of healthcare with the ‘O’ giving off a bit of halo vibe. This one was a bit too busy for my taste and we ended up going with the simple Charity Hospital version.