Rush University Medical Center Transformation Program
Chicago, Ill.

The final steel beam of the Rush University Medical Center’s new 14-story hospital was lifted into place last month. The 806,000-sf building will house acute and critical care patients, as well as surgical, diagnostic and therapeutic services. Thornton Tomasetti is providing structural design services for Perkins+Will for the project. In addition to the new hospital, the modernization program for the medical center includes the renovation and infill of the existing hospital and construction of new infrastructure components (loading dock, utility tunnels and pedestrian bridge), a central utility plant and a medical office building, which opened in December. The new hospital will incorporate a concept called “the interventional platform,” with three floors devoted to surgery, imaging and specialty procedures. It will include a state-of-the-art emergency services facility to better accommodate increased visits from Chicago’s West Side community. The hospital is seeking LEED Gold certification and is scheduled to open in 2012.