Planning began in 1999 for the campus-wide improvement of 35-year-old Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, Illinois. Major components are a new five-story parking garage; an expanded and renovated Emergency Department; an expanded Level 3 Neonatal Unit; a new Ambulatory Services Pavilion, a Women and Children’s Pavilion, North Tower Ancillary Services expansion; and a same-day surgery facility and new outpatient component. The East Surgery Pavilion is still under construction.

The existing facility had a number of access and operational inefficiencies. A new “portals of care” approach combines programs that make sense within the service line and allows patients to park on the same level as the services they are seeking.

Winfield would not allow the hospital to build higher than the existing structure, so to obtain the necessary heights for today’s technology, flat-slab concrete construction was used to take out structural depth to achieve the heights needed. Brick on the additions was matched as closely as possible to the existing variegated brick patterning.

In the Ambulatory Services Pavilion, glassed walls bring in healing qualities of natural light and a view of the landscaped courtyard while acting as a wayfinding element. The lobby of the Women and Children’s Pavilion is also designed on this premise, with the addition of an elegant sculpture.


Through architectural enhancement of the hospital, the expanded, redesigned facility still blends with the township as it provides an improved patient experience and is better prepared to meet the demands of the future.

Project category: New construction & Remodel/Renovation (completed October 2005)

Chief administrator: Luke McGuinness, President and CEO, (630) 933-1600

Firm: Earl Swensson Associates, Inc., (615) 329-9445

Design team: Todd Robinson, AIA, Principal-in-Charge, Architect (Earl Swensson Associates, Inc.); Bob Garrison, Program Manager, Owner’s Rep/Consultant (Garrison, Inc.); Jim Guyette, Project Manager, General Contractor (Pepper Construction Co.); Robert C. Burkhardt, Principal-in-Charge, MEP Engineer (Burkhardt & Associates); Jim Stephenson, Principal-in-Charge, Structural Engineer (Structural Design Group); Erik Olson, Project Manager, Civil Engineer (Bollinger, Lach & Associates, Inc.)

Photography: © Scott McDonald, Hedrich Blessing

Total building area (sq. ft.): 595,000 (new); 141,000 (renovation)

Construction cost/sq. ft.: $220 (new); $172 (renovation)

Total construction cost (excluding land): $130,875,000 (new); $24,225,000 (renovation)