Description

Brains can play strange tricks on people; sometimes we see things that do not exist or believe them to be different than they actually are. Passersby who see the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health and adjoining Keep Memory Alive Event Center may wonder if what they see is real – a building that looks like a mirage. Its undulating walls are pierced by 199 windows – not a single one alike.

Keep Memory Alive (KMA) was founded in 1996 by Larry Ruvo in honor of his father, Lou, who passed away from Alzheimer’s disease. KMA serves as the fundraising arm for the Center and aims to raise awareness for Alzheimer’s and other neurocognitive disorders. In 2009, KMA partnered with Cleveland Clinic to create Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health.

The Center is comprised of a clinic with 13 examination rooms, offices for health care practitioners and researchers, a so-called ‘Museum of the Mind’ and an events center that seats 400 people. Its one-of-a-kind architecture enhances the Center’s name recognition and acts as an ideal marketing tool. The building’s peculiar shape was strategically designed to stand out and generate attention. The events center is rented out for a variety of events including weddings, dinners, conventions and meetings with 100 % of the proceeds benefitting Keep Memory Alive. By now, it has become an important charity initiative in Las Vegas and a key participant in the nation’s fight against Alzheimer’s disease.

Constructing the Center was as exciting as its design. The 18,000 unique stainless steel shingles making up the façade needed to be recognizable for the engineers during construction. Barcoding each sheet allowed the German engineering team to keep track of each individual piece and compare its relationship to adjacent pieces in order to determine if adjustments were needed. In total, 65,000 hours were spent in engineering and three years, three months and 13 days were needed to complete this extraordinary architectural landmark. Two continents, one body of water and one desert were covered during the transportation of the prefabricated materials shipped from China to Las Vegas. The Center is a popular downtown Las Vegas destination that serves as a symbol of hope.

---

Originally published in: Cor Wagenaar, Noor Mens, Guru Manja, Colette Niemeijer, Tom Guthknecht, Hospitals: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2018.