Project category: New construction (completed October 2004)

Chief administrator: Phil Eaton, CEO, (815) 391-0100

Firm: Larson & Darby Group, (815) 484-0739

Design team: Richard S. McClelland, AIA, NCARB, Principal-in-Charge; Joseph P. Winkelmann, AIA, Project Architect; Sherry L. Goodwin, ASID, Lead Interior Designer; Gedeon L. Trias, Jr., AAIA, Associate Director of Design (Larson & Darby Group); Jim Kroeplin, PE, Principal Civil Engineer (Arnold Lundgren & Associates); Hoichi Kurisu, Principal Landscape Architect (Kurisu International)

Photography: Michelle Francis, Rosecrance

Total building area (sq. ft.): 68,000

Construction cost/sq. ft.: $206

Total construction cost (excluding land): $14,000,000


Rosecrance Health Network’s adolescent treatment facility provides programs and services that minister to adolescents involved in the perilous ordeal of substance abuse. To better support this mission, Rosecrance chose a spectacular, 50-acre wooded site. Care was taken by the design team to maximize the best qualities of this site while integrating those qualities into the architecture of the new facility.

The Rosecrance treatment facility consists of educational, religious, clinical, and residential spaces. The realization of the design was especially challenging given the client’s desire to deinstitutionalize the character of the program. The building is nestled in an area carved out of the wooded site. A meandering drive reveals the hidden complex as a place of seclusion and healing, while another path encircles the parklike setting. A plan of living spaces is spread out on the site to create private interior courtyards. Elements of the healing garden, with running and still water, are drawn into the courtyards to bring the healing garden experience into the building.

Through the use of color, artwork, and furniture, living spaces are designed to feel like home. Slight curves prevent long, monotonous hallways, allowing a maximization of views of the healing garden and admitting natural light. These living spaces are atop a support core of administrative, educational, recreational, and dining areas that also take advantage of the exterior views. The result blends the built and natural environments together in a calm and reassuring way to create the optimum environment for healing.