Tripler Army Medical Center

Tripler Army Medical Center (TAMC) is a major United States Department of Defense medical facility administered by the United States Army in the state of Hawaii. It is the tertiary care hospital in the Pacific Rim, serving local active and retired military personnel along with residents of nine U.S. jurisdictions and forces deployed in more than 40 other countries in the region.^[1] Located on the slopes of Moanalua Ridge^[2] overlooking the Honolulu neighborhoods of Moanalua and Salt Lake, Tripler Army Medical Center's massive coral pink structure can be seen from any point in the Honolulu District. It also serves as headquarters of the Regional Health Command - Pacific.^[3] The main hospital facility is within the Honolulu census-designated place.^[4]

Tripler Army Medical Center
Defense Health Agency
Main hospital building
Geography
Location	1 Jarrett White Road, Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.
Coordinates	21°21′43″N 157°53′22″W
Organisation
Care system	Tricare
Funding	Government hospital
Type	Military hospital
Services
Emergency department	Yes
Beds	1,000
Helipad	Yes
History
Construction started	1948 (current building)
Opened	1907
Links
Website	www.tamc.amedd.army.mil
Lists	Hospitals in U.S.

History

Tripler Hospital was established in 1907, housed in several wooden structures within Fort Shafter on the island of Oʻahu.^[5] In 1920 it was named after a legendary American Civil War surgeon, Brevet Brigadier General Charles Stuart Tripler (1806–1866), who made significant contributions to the development of military medicine.^[5][6]

Tripler Army Medical Center was commissioned by Lt. General Robert C. Richardson Jr., who was Military Governor of the Territory of Hawaiʻi during World War II.^[7] General Richardson hired the New York City based architectural firm of York & Sawyer to design the medical complex. The local landscape architect Robert O. Thompson designed the landscape to be "one of the great beauty spots of Hawaii", although his plans were never fully realized.^[8][9] At the outbreak of World War II, Tripler Army Medical Center had a 450-bed capacity which then expanded to 1,000 beds through the addition of barracks-type buildings.

Present Day

Tripler Army Medical Center in 1960

Plans for the new Tripler Army Medical Center on Moanalua Ridge were drawn in 1942 and construction was completed in 1948.^[5] The General Bronze Corporation, known for New York City's Mies van der Rohe-designed Seagram Building,^[10][11] the Atlas^[12] and Prometheus^[12] bronze sculptures in Rockefeller Center, the bronze doors for the United States Supreme Court and Commerce buildings,^[13] the aluminum windows for the United Nations Secretariat,^[14][15][16] Chase Manhattan Bank,^[17][18] fabricated the aluminum windows for the Tripler Army Base Hospital^[19]

In 1959, the original hospital was demolished to make way for expansion of Moanalua Road (now Interstate H-201).^[6]

Education

The installation has housing within the premises. Hawaii Department of Education operates public schools for dependent children of service members. As of 2016, zoned schools are Moanalua Elementary School, Moanalua Middle School, and Moanalua High School.^[20]

See also

• List of hospitals in Hawaii

References

1. "Tripler Army Medical Center, About Us". Tripler Army Medical Center. U.S. Army. Archived from the original on October 29, 2017. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
2. "Tripler Army Medical Center, Visiting Tripler". Tripler Army Medical Center. U.S. Army. Retrieved August 11, 2020.
3. "U.S. Army Medical Command Readiness, Pacific". www.army.mil. Retrieved 2022-04-22.
4. "2010 CENSUS - CENSUS BLOCK MAP (INDEX): Urban Honolulu CDP, HI" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 2020-10-11. - Page 4
5. "Tripler Past and Present". U.S. Army. Retrieved May 2, 2020.
6. "Historic 'Old Tripler' Is Demolished". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. May 19, 1959. p. 9. Retrieved November 24, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
7. Thompson, Edwin N. (1985). Pacific Ocean Engineers: History of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the Pacific, 1905–1980. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Pacific Ocean Division. p. 127. ASIN B0006EJBO6.
8. Thompson, Edwin N. (1985). Pacific Ocean Engineers: History of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the Pacific, 1905–1980. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Pacific Ocean Division. p. 131. ASIN B0006EJBO6.
9. Thompson, Edwin N. (1985). Pacific Ocean Engineers: History of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the Pacific, 1905–1980. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Pacific Ocean Division. p. 153. ASIN B0006EJBO6.
10. Ennis, Thomas. "Building is Designer's Testament" (PDF). The New York Times. No. November 10, 1957. pp. 313, 320. Retrieved 17 December 2023. Seagram Building Marks Apex Of Mies van der Rohe's Career
11. Nash, Eric (1999). Manhattan Skyscrapers (1st ed.). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton Architectural Press. pp. 105–106. ISBN 1-56898-181-3. Retrieved 16 December 2023.
12. General Bronze Corporation (1946). "The General Bronze Corporation and Rene Paul Chambellan". Internet Archive, Columbia University. General Bronze Corporation. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
13. "John Polachek, An Industrialist" (PDF). The New York Times. Obituaries: The New York Times Publishing. 18 April 1955. p. 22. Retrieved 18 December 2023. In 1903, he became a supervisor of bronze manufacturing for Tiffany Studios. Founder of General Bronze Corporation Dies – Products Adorn Leading Buildings
14. "GENERAL BRONZE BUILDS THE WORLD'S LARGEST WINDOW" (PDF). Progressive Architecture. 31 (6). New York: Reinhold Publishing Corporation: 19, 51. June 1950. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
15. Nash, Eric (1999). Manhattan Skyscrapers (1st ed.). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton Architectural Press. pp. 99–100. ISBN 1-56898-181-3. Retrieved 16 December 2023.
16. Barrett, George (17 September 1947). "UN Capital model shows much glass" (PDF). The New York Times. New York: The New York Times Publishing. p. 2. Retrieved 21 December 2023. Massive Panes and Thousands of Smaller Ones Mark a Radical New Design
17. "ONE CHASE MANHATTAN PLAZA" (PDF). NYC.gov. New York City, NY: Landmarks Preservation Commission – NYC. 10 February 2009. p. 6. Retrieved 22 December 2023. The General Bronze Corporation engineered and manufactured the ¼ inch thick aluminum panels
18. Tanner, Ogden; Allison, David; Blake, Peter; McQuade, Walter (July 1961). "The Chase — Portrait of a Giant" (PDF). Architectural Forum. 115 (1): 66–94. Retrieved 22 December 2023. Recessed flush with the inside faces of the huge aluminum-sheathed columns, the curtain wall consists of a two-tone aluminum spandrel and sill panel and an 8-foot-high window of clear glass
19. "GENERAL BRONZE CO. IN ALUMINUM FIELD – Mass Production of Window Frames for Residential Use Throughout U.S. Started RECORD ORDER COMPLETED Includes 4,500 for New Army Hospital Under Construction on Oahu Island, Hawaii" (PDF). The New York Times. 8 February 1946. p. 32. Certain of the excellent future for aluminum window frames, the General Bronze Corporation, Long Island City, has started mass production of such items for residential use throughout the country
20. "Hawaii School Information School Year 2016-2017" (PDF). Army Family and MWR Hawaii. p. 4/5. Retrieved 2024-10-28.

External links

• "Tripler Army Medical Center". U.S. Army. Archived from the original on June 22, 2020. Retrieved August 10, 2020.