5-Story Howard Brown Health Facility on Chicago’s North Side Completes

McHugh Construction has completed the construction of a new five-story healthcare facility and medical office in Chicago, Illinois. The federally qualified health center, which offers primary care and dental services, opened to patients in the last week of September while McHugh Construction completed finishes on an upper level. The new location offers 38 exam rooms, 12 dental chairs and will serve 23,000 patients a year upon full occupancy.

The company drew upon its experience in constructing buildings in dense urban neighborhoods to employ solutions in minimizing disruptions to neighbors and adjacent businesses throughout the project. Staging materials onsite and building some of the exterior façade from the inside rather than blocking an adjacent alley are just a few of the methods McHugh used to keep pedestrian and vehicular traffic unimpeded during the 1½-year construction of the 76,000-square-foot concrete-framed building.

Designed by Eckenhoff Saunders, the new facility features a glass curtainwall interspersed with brickwork in a variety of shades, while a setback on the top level accommodates a rooftop terrace that offers skyline views. The clear glass façade brings an abundance of sunlight into the colorful, airy common spaces within the facility.

A two-story lobby at the corner of Cornelia Avenue and Halsted Street features an open staircase that leads to the various offices, exam and consultation rooms located on the second through fifth floors, while a Walgreens store and pharmacy occupies the facility’s street-level retail space. A 26-car underground parking garage is accessible from the Cornelia Street side of the building, and the rooftop terrace is available for clinic events and functions.

The new flagship center doubles patient capacity in the neighborhood and offers expanded medical care and social services, including the first Howard Brown dental clinic on the North Side.

The project was developed by Howard Brown in partnership with Inland National Development Company. McHugh Concrete was the concrete subcontractor on the project.