Baird Hall, OHSU

Opened in 1949 as the Laboratory and Administration Building on the University of Oregon Medical School (now OHSU) Marquam Hill campus, Baird Hall was built to house the Department of Physiology and administrative offices. The building was designed by architect Ellis Lawrence, who also designed such campus buildings as the OHSU Auditorium and the Campus Services Building. It was renamed Baird Hall after former University of Oregon Medical School Dean Dr. David W. E. Baird shortly after his passing in 1974. In the twenty-first century, the building continues to house administrative offices, laboratories and classrooms.

The Laboratory and Administration building, now named Baird Hall, opened in September 1949. Constructed of reinforced concrete with brick facing, the building was financed through a state appropriation of $663,000 and was designed to include the latest developments in laboratory, classroom and office facilities. According to the 1950 report to the Alumni of the University of Oregon Medical School, the main floor originally included offices of “military science and tactics and mimeographing,” in addition to the business office, registrar’s office, and administrators’ offices. A faculty lounge paneled in walnut was also a feature of the administrative suite. The entire second floor was originally dedicated to the department of physiology, and included laboratories and classrooms as well as administrative offices. The third floor was devoted to the department of pathology. The ground floor, or basement level, was occupied by the Department of Public Health and Preventative Medicine as well as the switchboard facilities.

Dr. David W. E. Baird, a graduate of the University of Oregon Medical School (M.D. 1926), intern, instructor, physician, professor and researcher, became the fourth dean of the medical school in 1943, when Dr. Dillehunt retired. Dean Baird believed that medical education would benefit from full-time, dedicated physician educators, rather than relying primarily on physicians in private practice to serve as faculty. He is credited with bringing clinicians to the medical school as full-time faculty members and increasing the number of faculty members dramatically, from 10 in the 1920s to 125 in the 1950s. The Laboratory and Administration building, which opened under Dr. Baird’s tenure, was renamed Baird Hall in 1974.

In front of Baird Hall is a piece of public art by noted Columbia Gorge artist, James Lee Hansen: The Bearer Study No. 2, 1974, bronze, 47” x 24” x 12.5”. The piece is visible in the landscaped area to the south of the building.

OHSU School of Medicine. "Reflections on Yesterday: OHSU School of Medicine History." 2004. https://doi.org/10.6083/g158bj09p

Report to the Alumni of the University of Oregon Medical School, 1949. Historical Collections & Archives, OHSU Library.

Grafe, Steven. James Lee Hansen exhibition booklet. Maryhill Museum of Art. 2014. https://www.maryhillmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/JamesLeeHansen_Booklet_F.pdf