Bronzeville Advanced Outpatient Care Center

Supporting Northwestern Medicine’s strategic goal to expand healthcare access and bring ambulatory services to the Bronzeville community.

The building design proposed in these renderings reflects Bronzeville’s community input following numerous community engagement events with residents and community stakeholders. The result of this collaboration is a building that responds to the community’s needs and will be the anchor for exceptional healthcare for the community.

The Bronzeville Advanced Outpatient Care Center design concept is a culmination of three critical nodes. The Bronzeville neighborhood’s rich past, present, and future, Northwestern Medicine’s recognizable architectural typology throughout Chicagoland, and traditional Ethiopian woven baskets echo the community’s close-knit unity. Bronzeville is a resilient community that has endured and stood the test of time. It consistently looks out for one another and has a deeply rooted bond that connects its past to the present, similar to a basket weave pattern. An Ethiopian basket so tightly knotted can carry water, which represents the unity of this historically strong community.

The programmatic building volumes are woven and expressed throughout the façade. Starting with appropriately placing community and retail spaces at the highly visible corner of 48th and S. Cottage Grove, giving a visual connection to the community. The 1st and 2nd floors recess to relieve the urban edge and create a welcoming plaza at the corner. Building corners are curved to soften the edge and invite the community and its users. The use of stone with a vertical pattern at the base is a reference that blends the Northwestern Medicine architecture typology and Bronzeville’s traditional architectural character throughout the neighborhood. Finally, the garage is clad with a beautiful bronze finish woven pattern to represent the community’s narrative and identity, defining it physically in context to remind us never to forget yet inform the future.