Before photos: Mark Mazibrook, Anderson Mikos Architects, Ltd.


Project category: Remodel/Renovation (completed January 2005)

Chief administrator: Ernie Sadau, Chief Executive Officer, Adventist Health Systems, Midwest Region, (630) 856-2010

Firm: Anderson Mikos Architects, Ltd., (630) 573-5149

Design team: Mark Mazibrook, Project Architect; Leslie Rospert, Project Designer; Barbara Palm, Vice-President, Interior Design; Alan Kato, AIA, Vice-President, Planning and Design; Dave Mikos, AIA, Officer-in-Charge

Photography: Mark Mazibrook, Anderson Mikos Architects, Ltd.; © Steinkamp/Ballogg Photography

Total building area (sq. ft.): 17,000

Construction cost/sq. ft.: $247

Total construction cost (excluding land): $4,190,981

Adventist Hinsdale Hospital, located in an affluent Chicago suburb, was experiencing the typical problem most hospitals are now having—an aged physical plant designed years ago. Existing inpatient rooms were all doubles with cramped quarters for both patients and nurses.

We prepared a master plan for the hospital’s conversion into this century’s noninstitutional healthcare environment. To create a healing environment for patients and their families, as well as a comfortable working environment for staff, we introduced a space with 30 single patient rooms and decentralized team stations. Each room is designed with amenities and spaces for the patient, the family, and staff work areas.

Each room’s entrance is accented by soft, curved soffits and matching floor patterns, creating the individual room identity. Corridors are broken up by these subtle curves in the ceiling and floors, which are intersected by planes, enhancing a sense of layering and locations of the nurses’ station. A soothing color palette is highlighted with natural materials of maple and cherry wood tones. Abundant natural light is complemented by soft, indirect corridor lighting.

Jann Marks, RN, MBA, CNAA, vice-president/chief nursing officer for Adventist Hinsdale Hospital, confirms: “The design reflects a welcoming, comforting environment for patients and their families. Many focus groups with patients, staff, and physicians were held to ensure that the needs of those experiencing the unit would be met relative to the furniture, colors, physical layout, work space areas, and patient and family spaces.”