Established in 1972, Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital is located in Wheaton, Illinois, on a four-acre site within the existing 65-acre campus of the Wheaton Franciscan Sisters.

Because the demands, codes, and practices for rehabilitation services have grown and changed over time, Stephen Rankin Associates’ challenge was to create a 120-bed replacement hospital that would seamlessly coexist in close proximity to the original facility.

The new facility is an inpatient facility for patients requiring physical rehabilitation and is the only freestanding rehabilitation hospital in the country that features all-private rooms. The new hospital is connected to the existing facility with a basement, garden-level, all-weather connector that forms a circular courtyard. This courtyard provides daylight to the basement level, acts as a central focal point for the project, and is a critical wayfinding element. The circular courtyard contains a meditative labyrinth developed by Marianjoy and is fashioned after the labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral in France. The functional inpatient entrance, outpatient entrance, and vehicular drop-offs are located above the circular connector corridors.

Project category: Addition (completed October 2006)

Chief administrator: Kathleen Yosko, President and CEO, (630) 909-7503

Firm: Stephen Rankin Associates, (312) 899-0002

Design team: Stephen Rankin, AIA, Principal; Brian Hirami, AIA, Project Manager; Takemasa Okugawa, Design Architect; Emily Basham, Staff Architect; Mike Salud, Staff Architect; Swati Singh, Staff Architect

Photography: Christopher Barrett, Hedrich Blessing

Total building area (sq. ft.): 173,500

Construction cost/sq. ft.: $252

Total construction cost (excluding land): $43,750,000

One goal was to create a hospital environment that was not confining and would maximize the patients’ connection to the beautiful site. The patient beds are oriented to provide views so patients will not have to turn their heads. The curved walls of the two-story chapel at the south end of the hospital have soaring, vertical, stained-glass windows with light from the east and west filtering in throughout the day.