The NIH Clinical Center was designed in the form of a Lorainne cross: one long axis cut by two shorter axes. Patients, clinical staff, and clinical researchers were located in the center of each floor. Basic science laboratories were located on the ends of the long axis and in the cross-cutting corridors. The design represented the philosophy of the facility to transfer new biomedical knowledge as rapidly as possible from the laboratory to the patient’s bedside. That philosophy has never changed.