Current Projects: Saving Old Cook County Hospital

Tickets $20 here

Get an exclusive look at the Old Cook County Hospital redevelopment project and learn how successful collaboration between local government leaders, developers, designers and preservationists saved this historic structure.

Located on the Near West Side, the Old Cook County Hospital dates back to 1912 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. After sitting vacant for more than 16 years, work began last year to transform the Beaux-Arts building into a contemporary anchor for the hospital campus and surrounding community. The first phase of construction will turn the old hospital building into a hotel, administrative and medical offices and ground floor retail. Future phases include plans for residential units, offices, retail and parking on the land surrounding the building. Hosted in partnership with Landmarks Illinois, this program will explore the strategic process that brought new awareness, vision and value to this languishing icon. Hear from developers and preservationists about how this project came to fruition and why it might serve as a model for saving other threatened structures.

PROGRAM SPEAKER: TIM BRANGLE

Tim Brangle, President & CEO of The Chicago Consultants Studio, Inc., has spent nearly 30 years working on a wide range of “transformative” projects in cities around the country and world. His expertise in architecture and urban planning and experience in strategic development and program management gives him unique problem solving abilities and implementation know-how. The Chicago Consultants Studio, Inc. has worked with numerous public and private clients including the City of Chicago, Cook County, the University of Chicago, theMetropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority of Chicago, Chicago Housing Authority, Draper and Kramer, Inc., the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Walt Disney Imagineering, Caesars Entertainment, MGM Resorts/Entertainment, and Hyatt Hotels. Harrison Square is among the firm’s current projects: the $750 million privately funded and developed mixed-use project with the historic Old Cook County Hospital renovation as its centerpiece.

PROGRAM SPEAKER: JOSEPH ANTUNOVICH

Joseph M. Antunovich, FAIA, is founder and president of Antunovich Associates, a 90-person architecture, planning, and interior design firm with offices in Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. Mr. Antunovichdirected the restoration of the historic Nickerson Mansion and the Murphy Auditorium in Chicago for the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation and recently completed the new hotel The Robey & Robey Hall in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood. Mr. Antunovich is active in efforts to save threatened historic buildings, having authored adaptive re-use studies for Old Cook County Hospital in Chicago, and led the initiative to purchase the historic Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois, and have it opened to the public.

PROGRAM SPEAKER: JOHN MURPHY

John T. Murphy, Chairman &CEO of MDG and Vice Chairman of MB Real Estate, is recognized as a leading, Chicago-based real estate expert. Murphy Development Group (MDG) is undertaking the visionary mixed-use redevelopment of Chicago’s iconic Old Cook County Hospital. This five-phase, $1 billion project will transform the world-renowned Illinois Medical District on Chicago’s Near West Side and provide needed amenities for thousands of area workers and visitors. MDG is also known for the successful transformation of the formerly vacant, historic Chicago Motor Club into a 143-room Hampton Inn and for redevelopment of the Oriental Theater Building at 32 W. Randolph St. into the Cambria Hotel Chicago Loop.