Hospital expansion photo wins “2016 Year in Construction” photo contest

Photo by Barry Fleisher, MD, depicts Joe Stow, an ironworker and foreman with Sheedy Crane, demobilizing a tower crane at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford in May 2016. The photo was selected as a “2016 Year in Construction” photo contest winner. Courtesy of Barry Fleisher.

Formerly a neonatologist at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, Barry Fleisher, MD, has retired from medicine and is now spending his time pursuing another passion — photography. Years after his 14-year career with Packard Children’s ended, the hospital is underway on a major expansion project to create America’s most technologically advanced, family-friendly and environmentally sustainable hospital to meet the growing needs of babies, children and pregnant women. Barry has taken a keen interest in the new hospital, and for nearly 3 years he has been chronicling its construction with photography, capturing thousands of images that tell a story through the workers; the details of the steel, concrete and equipment; and the overall structure and grounds as they come together.

“The construction at LPCH has given me a chance to bring together my family history in the construction business, ties to Packard Children’s, and enthusiasm for photography,” Barry said. “The staff, contractors and workers have made me feel welcome at the expansion site, which is an exciting place to be with a beauty of its own – which I’ve tried to capture.”

This month, one of Barry’s photos has been selected by Engineering News-Record (ENR) magazine as a “2016 Year in Construction” photo contest winner. For the contest, the publication collected construction photos taken all over the world between November 2015 and November 2016. They received more than 1,100 entries, from which 37 winners were selected.

Barry’s winning photo depicts a crew demobilizing one of the two tower cranes at Packard Children’s on May 14, 2016 (shown at top of page). He was fascinated by the day-long process and captured the power of the work involved in this one small aspect of the 521,000-square-foot hospital expansion construction project.

“I’d been shooting the demobilization of the tower crane over two days in May, 2016, and that entire process is dramatic to watch,” Barry says. “The winning shot caught my eye because of the intensity of the moment, which is part and parcel of the kind of work I’ve observed over the last three years.”

View more of Barry’s work in our photo gallery >