The story of The Crossing is a story of rehabilitation, change, and
humanity. Many would have labeled this worn, brick industrial building
along the freight rail line a lifeless eyesore ready for demolition.
However, through the combined vision of DesignGroup and the young
leaders at La Porte Hospital the building received new life through a
creative adaptive re-use strategy.
Built in 1919 and located adjacent to LaPorte Regional Healthcare
System’s main campus this 14,000sf building housed, in its former lives,
a manufacturer of water heaters, a manufacturer of spiral telephone cord
and more recently a storage/maintenance facility for LaPorte Hospital.
In late 2002 the hospital needed to consolidate and increase space for
its successful outpatient Wellness & Rehabilitation Program under one
roof and the underutilized industrial building fit that need perfectly.
From the start the design team was seduced by the simple, noble quality
of the existing architecture and the opportunities to provide a dynamic
intervention into it. Of particular significance were the two rows of
wood bow trusses that run the length of the existing building. The
benefits of these trusses are two-fold: they require minimal columns and
provide a unique architectural character to the space if strategically
exposed to view.
To celebrate the existing bow trusses, the designers treated the
existing building as a large container within which smaller “boxes”
housing program elements were created. The arrangement of theses
interior volumes also allowed unique residual spaces of differing sizes
to occur. The main corridor spine was carefully planned to skew the
space at a diagonal in order to create clear wayfinding and a dynamic
spatial intervention. Secondary corridors link the enclosed staff spaces
and the open patient rehab spaces. The result is a system of internal
“streets” creating neighborhoods of private and public program areas.
The larger spaces such as the rehabilitation gym and multi-purpose room
are treated much like the neighborhood parks or green spaces. These
spaces are strategically located on the exterior walls and are left open
to the existing structure allowing natural light to flood the space. The
patient’s prolonged exposure to natural lighting is integral to t he
psychological/physiological facet of the healing process. The location
of these larger spaces along exterior walls also has a benefit to the
exterior streetscape as pedestrians can sense the activity of the
interior spaces and experience the architectural quality of those
spaces.
This wellness/rehab center was designed to celebrate and reinforce the
healing qualities of physical activity and human interaction. Vibrant
paint hues and warm woods provide a lively contrast with the gritty
industrial character of the building and were selected to be conducive
to rehabilitation and wellness. Materials and colors used also reinforce
the formal composition of program elements and provide for clear
wayfinding. These colors and materials are seamlessly woven from the
interior to the exterior vestibule and canopy addition. Corrugated metal
panel is used to encase a major program element and refers to both
vocabulary of the building façade improvements and to the industrial
character of the existing building.
An aquatics program houses a therapy
pool room whose colors and patterns of translucent glass tile were
selected to reinforce the cool, aquatic, spa-like character of the space
and water therapy healing experience.
Changes in floor texture and color also add to the richness of the
material palette and to wayfinding. Sealed concrete was used as a
durable material in the waiting area and main corridors. Resilient
rubber flooring and walk-off materials were used appropriate to program
and wayfinding. The interior lighting strategy was two-fold: The trusses
were illuminated via asymmetrical uplights and the corridors and large
rehab floor areas were illuminated with a variety of suspended and wall
mounted lighting techniques.
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DesignGroup
515 East Main St.
Columbus, Ohio 43215
www.dgcolumbus.com
LaPorte Wellness &
Rehabilitation Facility
“The Crossing of LaPorte Hospital”
LaPorte Regional Health System
LaPorte, Indiana
Design Team Profiles
Project Principal – Robert Vennemeyer (DesignGroup)
Project Manager – Keith DeVoe (DesignGroup)
Project Designer – Michael Bongiorno (DesignGroup)
Project Architect – Lorne Eisen (DesignGroup)
Healthcare Planner – Scott Doellinger (DesignGroup)
Interior Designer – Adrian Boysel (DesignGroup)
Specifications Writer – Tracy Van Niel (DesignGroup)
Design Team Consultants
Mechanical – Brian Braaksmo (Korda/Nemeth Engineering, Inc.)
Electrical – Brian Braaksmo (Korda/Nemeth Engineering, Inc.)
Structural – Bob Corby (Korda/Nemeth Engineering, Inc.)
Civil – William Hupp (NIES Engineering, Inc.)
Construction Manager
Timothy Larson (Larson-Danielson Construction Co., Inc.)
Photography
George Lambros (Lambros Photography Inc.)
Michael Bongiorno (DesignGroup)
3-D Drawing |
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