Bedside Manor. The folks at Fast Company featured a beautiful hospital by architect Koen van Velsen in their blog today. The cantilevered casa for care trusts itself so elegantly into the woods, it almost makes you wish you were sick. The hotel, er, hospital in Arnhem, Holland is one of six finalists for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture Mies van der Rohe Award.

Goal to Go. After holding out for several years, the Rudin family finally took home the prize. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court approved the $260 million sale St. Vincent’s Hospital in the Village to the Rudins and the North Shore-LIJ Health System. The brown-brick complex on the east side of Seventh Avenue will go condo, while the white tiled maritime-sque O’Toole building on the west side will become an emergency care unit. In a bizarre fourth quarter twist, Crain‘s reported that several NFL veterans attempted Hail Mary pass to outbid the Rubins, promising to smack the NFL logo on the side of the building.

Mega Mansion. Even by L.A. standards, plans for this mega-mansion went over the top. After causing a huge stir among neighbors in Benedict Canyon with his plans to build an 85,000 square foot compound, Saudi Prince Abdulaziz ibn Abdullah ibn Abdulaziz al Saud promised to scale back designs for the 5.2 acre plot. The prince tried to keep his identity under wraps, but the L.A. Times busted his cover last month.

An Urge to Merge. HMC Architects is pulling their resources with San Francisco based Beverly Prior Architects reports Architect. Prior had always poo-pooed the idea of merging with a faceless corporate entity, but she told Architect that the larger firm had certain “joie de vivre to them” that won her over.