HOK completes Health and Sciences center at COD
June 18, 2010 | Staff Writer | Print Article | Email this Article
The Chicago office of HOK has completed the new Health and Sciences Center at the College of DuPage (COD) in Glen Ellyn, Ill.
The 188,000-square-foot facility, which was designed by HOK’s Chicago office, houses a combination of laboratory, classroom, office and instructional spaces for COD’s Health Careers and Natural Sciences programs. With enrollment of more than 31,000 students, COD is the largest single-campus community college in the United States outside the state of California. 
“The client’s goal was to provide a modern, sustainable facility that would house all of COD’s Health Careers and Natural Sciences programs, which were previously housed in different locations across campus,” said Erik Andersen, Design Principal for the project. “With that in mind, HOK began the design process by considering the sizes, modulations and qualitative requirements of each space type needed.”
The unique requirement of co-locating two disparate programs led the design team to quickly recognize that the spaces needed for the Natural Sciences programs were generally larger and had more intensive mechanical requirements, but could also be somewhat standardized in size and scale.
The Health Careers spaces, conversely, required some unique configurations, but did not involve complex HVAC needs. For that reason, the designers recommended that the Natural Sciences programs occupy three floors in the East Wing with HVAC functions appropriately stacked, while the Health Careers programs could be handily accommodated on two floors in the West Wing. This planning and stacking strategy provided a space-efficient way of integrating the two programs within a single building.
Once those structural decisions were made, HOK developed a glass façade pattern inspired by DNA sequencing to visually unify the wings of the building. Technology-enabled lounges were designed throughout the space, while a second-floor bridge was constructed to provide an elevated pathway from the Health and Sciences Center to the adjacent Student Resource Center. This indoor corridor allows students to travel between buildings without having to go outside.
The new building successfully houses programs in dental hygiene, nursing, respiratory care, physical therapy, surgical technology, diagnostic medical imaging, health sciences and health technology, as well as classes in biology, botany, anatomy, physiology and chemistry. In addition to classroom and office space, the state-of-the-art facility includes a 125-seat tiered lecture hall, a dental hygiene clinic, 36 laboratories (including anatomy and physiology labs with cadaver capabilities), and a simulated operating suite.
Tags | Chicago, education, HOK
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