Presence Center for Advanced Care Holds Topping-Off Ceremony

CHICAGO — Designers, builders and officials celebrated the topping off of the new Presence Center for Advanced Care facility on Jan. 8. The facility is located on the campus of Presence Saint Joseph Hospital in Chicago.
As a snowstorm hit the city, the final structural beam was lifted atop the 380,000-square-foot ambulatory care center. When it’s completed, the center will include three floors of medical offices, three floors of parking and three floors of ambulatory care, including a 23,000-square-foot comprehensive cancer center.
The Presence Center for Advanced Care aims to create a new health care experience by providing the community with easy access to outpatient services and delivering coordinated care by specialists. Presence Saint Joseph Hospital opened in 1868 and is well known for its advanced care in cardiology, headache, cancer care, cardiac care, minimally invasive surgery, plastic surgery, neonatal care and treatment of HIV and its complications.
Presence Saint Joseph is owned and operated by Resurrection Health Care, the largest Catholic health care system in Chicago. The nonprofit organization operates six hospitals total with more than 2,300 beds. St. Joseph’s plans of building the center began in 1989, according to Crain’s Chicago Business. The hospital decided in 2003 to make it an outpatient pavilion, and the city approved zoning in 2006. The center will be linked to the main hospital via a glass skywalk overlooking Chicago’s Commonwealth Avenue.
Designed by Washington, D.C.-based RTKL, the center, which is targeting LEED Gold, is scheduled to open its doors to patients in September 2015. In partnership with RTKL, Hammes Company of Brookfield, Wis., served as project developer. Power Construction Company of Schaumburg, Ill., provided construction services.
The center will provide a range of services, including a women’s imaging and breast center; an outpatient surgery center; a digestive health institute; an integrated musculoskeletal institute; outpatient physical therapy; and a diabetes and wellness center, among others.
“Presence Center for Advanced Care embodies a new way of defining and providing a sustainable solution for delivering comfort and convenience in the heart of an urban environment,” said RTKL vice president Sandy Faurot, in a statement. “We are excited to celebrate this significant milestone with our partners at Presence Health and look forward to the opening of a premier, one-stop destination health and wellness center in this vibrant Chicago neighborhood.”
RTKL led the administration and department leaders through a series of goal-setting sessions to brainstorm about creating a comprehensive, patient-focused and centrally located center. The cancer center will house radiation therapy, medical oncology and complementary therapies. Radiation oncology vaults will be constructed of modular shielding blocks.
“The Presence Center for Advanced Care was designed to foster multidisciplinary, collaborative care in order to enhance outcomes and the patient experience,” said Roberta Luskin-Hawk, regional president and CEO of Presence Saint Joseph Hospital and Presence Saint Francis Hospital, in a statement. “Attention to our patients’ mind, body and spirit is an important attribute of the experience as is convenient, seamless, high-quality care enabled by smart technology, modern design, superb clinicians and exceptional staff.”