CHICAGO | Rush University Medical Center | 14 FLOORS | COM
 

The new Rush University Medical Center is going to be a state of the art medical facility that will focus on patient and family care. With a patient friendly campus, no longer will patients and their families have to navigate difficult and confusing hospital hallways. Planned to open in 2012, the new main hospital of Rush University will offer first class health care to a first class city. With its unique new design, the new Rush University Medical Center will be a beacon and guide for which new medical centers will be designed.

http://www.greenspacetoday.com/site/...al_View_lo.jpg

http://www.greenspacetoday.com/site/...al_night_v.jpg

http://www.greenspacetoday.com/site/...ens%5B2%5D.jpg

All images found from Rush University Medical Centers website at http://www.rush.edu

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3601/...72908930_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3357/...25ea1500_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2461/...c7c0b97b_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3644/...18d15104_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3319/...f3acff83_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3632/...da36fb04_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3556/...26a638a0_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3619/...b0ebdc09_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3317/...3ff4b771_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2444/...93a94134_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3328/...a52c8362_b.jpg

^ Thanks for the pics--great idea for a thread.

Just curious, what's this rather cool-looking structure that appears to be u/c across the street?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3556/...26a638a0_b.jpg

^It's the Rush Orthopedic Ambulatory Building, part of the "Rush Transformation" plan. Perkins+Will is designing all of the new buildings that are part of the plan.

http://www.rush.edu/rumc/page-1186597717044.html

http://www.rushcampaign.org/content....=6&news_id=525

Sounds great... now just build and staff one in Hyde Park, since the U of C is no longer interested in patient care.

Which buildings are they talking about? Even if they are architecturally unremarkable, I can't say I'm thrilled by the idea of more streetlife-killing open space in an area already rife with it.

Does this mean the demolition of these:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...0.68,,0,-20.52

and this:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...0.07,,0,-20.63
and
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...5.26,,0,-23.29

Yeah, everyone wins if these are replaced with more unnecessary green space :rolleyes: and at least a couple of these are architecturally remarkable.

I totally agree with you viva. There is already a park directly west of Rush that seems to only cater to the homeless and the staff smokers at Rush (since on campus smoking is no longer aloud). I also agree with you that these buildings are architecturally important as well as historically important. Some of these buildings date back to the mid 1800's and represent a modern (well somewhat Victorian looking) era of medicine.

I also don’t see how any amount of park space or even adding nice restaurants to the mix could ever change this area. With most inner city hospital comes inner city problems, poverty, crime, drugs, etc. As much potential as I believe this area could have, I think it will always be plagued by the same issues.

To answer your question, the part of the hospital known as the super block is slated for demolition. This consist of the Rawson, Jones, Murdock, and Senn buildings. If you go to Google street view and look north on Harrison St., the 15 story Jelke building will be the furthest west structure still standing after the demolition.


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2421/...3258dfb8_b.jpg

The part labeled H is currentlly where the "super block" resides, and will eventually be the park area.

Also, Hydrogen, I am continually impressed by how much knowledge you have of all of these projects! That is awesome :tup:

Does anyone have that older, more glassy rendering?

There are numerous renderings, these are a few:

http://www.ediltd.com/html/images/rush_02.jpg

image from http://www.ediltd.com

http://www.chicagoreader.com/feature...80117/rush.jpg

image from http://www.chicagoreader.com

http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/4135/rushmedwn2.jpg

image from www.skyscrapercity.com

A new worthless park right next to a rapid transit station, as well. Progress! At least the right people will get their demolition contracts out of this whole deal.

I believe the long term plan is to close the polk station and build a new one in rush.

Where did you hear that from Schwerve? That Polk station is somewhat new and there is really no place to build a new station in Rush, the "L" is already completely surrounded by the Atrium building and the academic center overhead and to the sides.

Also Viva, the park west of Rush is also a bust because it doubles as a helicopter pad for trauma patients over at Cook County hospital, relaxing eh?

I know some of the higher ups at rush but I don't have too much information other than the cta has told them that at some point they would rebuild the station and directly connect it to the hospital similar to the merchandise mart station. when this happens? exactly how it would be laid out? I don't have any details.

May 18
 

What is that creepy concrete moat thing for? Is that like a bathtub-like groundwater barrier?
I just can't help thinking there will be people in white padded rooms, or pandemic quarantinees etc, being "contained" by the wall.


Edit: More generally, I guess hospitals are increasingly being built with robustness against catastrophes/terrorism in rather profound ways, engineering-wise and otherwise

Hahaha no its not some weird under ground quarantine room, its the tunnel that connects the loading dock from Paulina Street, under the orthopedic building and Harrison Street, and finally to the new building. The actual hospital foundation doesnt start until the internal wall of the tunnel.

[IMG]http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/t...N/100_0993.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/t...N/100_0996.jpg[/IMG]

http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/t...N/100_0985.jpg

This is a pic of the soon to be completed orthopedic building, one phase of the Rush transformation. Also completed in this phase will be the new power plant building, and the new parking structure ( will post pics of those soon) :tup:

^^^ That building is awesome!!! I am also looking forward to seeing how the main hospital building will turn out. This building seems to extend the skyline west a bit more and make the UIC tower a little less awkwardly separate from the skyline. There really has been a lot of urban healing in this southwest corner of downtown replacing vast swaths of decay or old factories.

I'm actually not that against them creating a "park" there as long as its not a real park but a placeholder. That corner would be a great spot for another large, modern, expansion in the future and some really neat things could be done with it. I don't like tearing down buildings, but I'm sure Rush will build something there soon enough to replace them.

I totallly agree with you nowhereman. The southwest area of Chicago has been long neglected and is finally starting to hit a turnaround. The only problem with a westward expansion after the eastward expansion is that the main part of the hospital will be so far east from the "park" that another westward expansion would be costly and probably unnecessary for the hospital.

^^^ I suppose that it would be difficult to expand the hospital, but that doesn't mean they won't have a need for more office space or some other use that isn't directly tied to the hospital space.

true true, good point, the main office is across 290, so maybe one day they would want to relocate to be connected to the hospital.