University of Chicago Health and Wellness Center
Nurture collaborated on the renovation, planning, design, and construction of the University of Chicago Health, Counseling, and Wellness Center, a new 20,000 SF student health, counseling and wellness center addition located within an existing heritage building on the University of Chicago campus, The Chicago Women’s Lying In Hospital, which is also on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Center provides students with comprehensive health, counseling, and wellness services to support their academic, personal, and professional success. From early design phases and into construction, Nurture provided design and technical consulting on the transition of construction between the existing historic façade and structure to the new addition, in order to maintain the integrity of both buildings. The project received a LEED Gold certification by the USGBC.
With respect to the buildings' historic and cultural legacy, Nurture conducted an assessment to evaluate current conditions, understand interior heritage spaces and determine historic building types as it related to the new addition.
Sustainability in a historical building context was an important goal for this project – Nurture measured the performance of these buildings’ historic envelope, exploring the possibilities and limitations inherent in a desire to add insulation and its impact on permeability in the context of renovations.
