On 3/15/2019 the Illinois Veterans’ Home Project will hold it’s topping off ceremony – representing the culmination of decades of effort by the State of Illinois and Designer HED.

Located on an urban site on Chicago’s northwest side just 13 miles from downtown, the Illinois Veterans’ Home project will be the very first such facility to be built within the city of Chicago. It features non-age-restricted, licensed skilled care programming and features a strategic adjacency to the Read Mental Health Center.

As the first newly constructed veterans’ home in Illinois in over 20 years, the Illinois Veterans’ Home is also the first such facility in the state to incorporate the federal Community Living Center (CLC) guidelines, meaning it resembles “home” as much as possible while providing skilled nursing and medical care.

“This project embodies a paradigm shift in how the State of Illinois approaches veteran care,” says HED Principal and Studio Leader Susan King, “Using the CLC guidelines, which was mandated by the Federal Veterans Administration for all newly constructed projects in 2011, we’ve created a facility that incorporates small house design at a large scale.”

King continues, “The dining program utilizes a hybrid approach with central and residential format kitchens in each household to serve the population appropriately. Medical features and spaces such as nursing stations were approached through a hospitality lens, with finishes that recall a household environment.”

Expected to be completed in Winter of 2020, this facility will soon provide a home for 200 veterans.