Community Health Gets a New Self-Sustaining Look

Located in one of the most vibrant yet blighted neighbourhoods in Southwest Chicago, the Focal Point Community Campus envisions a public healthcare setting that embraces its local community. The vision for Focal Point was developed by Chicago’s St. Anthony Hospital and will be brought to life under The Chicago Southwest Development Corporation, a not-for-profit organisation established to develop and maintain the Focal Point property.

In addition to a new hospital for the community, the campus will bring thousands of jobs and a range of retail, wellness, education, arts and recreation elements to enrich the lives of the more than 400,000 residents in the North and South Lawndale, Little Village, Pilsen, Back of the Yards, Bridgeport and Austin neighbourhoods.

Key features of the Focal Point Community Campus include:

• As both an anchor and an agent for change, the hospital is envisioned as an urban campus that fosters a relationship between the hospital and its community. The two are intrinsically linked by a “circulatory system” — a band of food and retail markets, fitness centres and community services that runs along the second floor of the building. This system serves as the interface between the world of healthcare and the world beyond, bringing the two together — a new paradigm in the industry.
• The building will tread lightly on the site with its ground floor wrapped with glass and grounds replete with wellness gardens and recreation areas.
• The campus will follow a breakthrough model that will make it a financially self-sustaining community. Through this model, rental income from revenue-generating tenants — such as retail stores and schools, hospitality and day care, a parking garage, an outpatient clinic and St. Anthony Hospital, which will relocate to serve as a tenant of the campus — will be reinvested into programs and services provided on site, including continuing education and wellness classes, a centre for creativity and a park and recreation centre.
• Each aspect of the campus was custom-selected based on collaborating research we conducted with St. Anthony Hospital on the needs of the community.
• The new campus will transform the almost 11-acre vacant lot into an active complex offering a variety of services housed within nearly 1 million square-feet of space, including three main buildings and an approximately 1,200 space parking garage.