A local architecture critic assesses the 750,000 square feet of new and renovated space recently completed as part of DHMC's Project for Progress expansion. The complex works aesthetically, he concludes. And, more to the point for a hospital, functionally and spiritually, too.

James Varnum is about to retire after close to three decades as the president of Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital. His departure marks a shift but not a change in an enduring institutional culture.

Exactly 40 years ago, seven patients traveled over hill and dale and showed up in the Mary Hitchcock Hospital Emergency Room with severe symptoms of poisoning. They had all eaten some supposedly safe wild greens.