CHICAGO, IL (August 18, 2011) – The skyline along Foster Avenue heading east near California Avenue is undergoing a dramatic transformation as the new Swedish Covenant Hospital Foster Medical Pavilion takes shape.
Construction on the new 237,938-square-foot facility began around the first of the year. When completed next summer, the eight-story building will house an ambulatory surgery center, medical offices, and five levels of covered parking.
The first floor will house a new pharmacy and provide additional retail space. The first five floors provide patient parking, with medical offices occupying the upper three floors along with three operating rooms on the eighth floor. The design provides additional space on the eighth floor that can be converted into a fourth operating room, if needed in the future.
As an added convenience to both patients and physicians, a connecting enclosed walkway will join the new medical pavilion with the existing Professional Plaza that houses physician offices as well as x-ray and related laboratory services.
In addition to unique exterior finish treatments designed to blend into the environment, the interior features convenient patient drop-off areas, hospital-size elevators, specially zoned heating and air conditioning systems, handicapped accommodations, and acoustical privacy, among other features.
The building, located on the northeast corner of Foster and California avenues, was designed to fit into an area that extends from the existing hospital campus to the south – along Foster Avenue with its nearby retail establishments – to residential housing that borders the new facility on the north. Numerous conversations took place with city and neighborhood representatives as architects sought to design a facility that would complement the overall area.
The accompanying photo reflects the impact of the structure in the neighborhood – the familiar Hilltop Restaurant on the northwest corner of the Foster-California intersection (lower foreground) seems quite small compared to the new eight-story facility.
“The development of the Center for Ambulatory Surgery at Swedish Covenant reflects the growth of the hospital’s surgical program,” says CEO Mark Newton. “Swedish Covenant is seeing growth in robotic, vascular, orthopedic, cardiac, women’s health and neurosurgery surgical volumes,” he notes. “The additional three operating suites will allow us to continue providing advanced surgical care to our community.”
Established more than 120 years ago, Swedish Covenant Hospital provides health and wellness services to the communities of Chicago’s North and Northwest sides. As an established academic and community hospital, it offers a comprehensive range of medical programs, including cancer, cardiac, surgical, women’s health and emergency services.
As one of the few independent, nonprofit hospitals in the area, Swedish Covenant Hospital – with 2,200 employees, 550 physicians and 250 volunteers – remains focused on its mission of providing compassionate care in a healing environment.
Swedish Covenant Hospital is administered by the Covenant Board of Benevolence on behalf of the Evangelical Covenant Church.
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Amazing changes! When I first worked at SCH as a general flunkie in 1949 the hospital was much smaller, and after a short time I knew almost all of the physicians, (were there 40 or 50 of them?) My work there as an orderly was followed several years later by a year as a surgical house officer, (while taking seminary courses at NPTS,) and then during several furloughs from mission work as an attending , concluding with 5 years part-time as an ER physician after the career as missionary surgeon. Now my involvement is limited to membership on a couple of committees, but I’m pleased to find that compassion remains high on the expressed values of those in leadership roles at SCH.
Things certainly have changed since I gave birth to Owen and Randy there in the 50’s. Congratulations!
Deanie Youngman, The Holmstad
Quite a change in the area since I was born in 1930 at the Swedish Covenant Hospital. Thanks for the coverage of HQ happenings. It’s good to see the Evangelical Covenant Church still leaving an imprint in an area that probably doesn’t have many Swedes any more. Let’s make sure that we don’t lose our Swedish imprint – our founders were men and women of God who came to this country as an act of survival. As my dad (the Rev. P.E. Palmquist) used to say, God Bless Us All Real Good.