North Center Senior Campus

Chicago, Illinois

The Lakota Group worked with the City of Chicago, local alderman, and three developers to prepare a master plan for redeveloping the former Martha Washington Hospital site as a new affordable housing campus for seniors. The plan maintained an existing health care center and organizeed buildings around a central commons that serves both residents and the community. Campus buildings were set back to reduce their physical scale on adjacent single family neighborhoods, while a corner park provides an open space connection to the central commons, while welcoming the surrounding neighborhood to campus. The landscape design creates a unified landscape theme for the entire block and enhances the outdoor rooms defined by the master plan. Lakota was involved in planning the site, gaining City approvals, designing the campus and parks, and developing an overall signage system for the campus.

Lakota won a national Livable Communities award from the American Association of Retired Persons and was short-listed for the Richard H. Driehaus Award for Architectural Excellence in Community Design for the North Center Senior Campus project.