PROJECT OVERVIEW

To meet growing patient demand and expand access to world-class health care in the area, Northwestern Medicine embarked on an expansion project at the Catherine Gratz Griffin Lake Forest Hospital with the construction of two new patient pavilions.

Read more about this project in the Summer 2026 issue of Ascent.

PRECAST SOLUTION

The work—resulting in 290,000 square feet of new space, 210 additional hospital beds, an expanded emergency department, and the strengthening of specialty care services—relied heavily on architectural precast concrete. This building material choice allowed Northwestern Medicine to advance its mission of putting patients first while remaining responsive to the architectural expectations of the people it serves.

Owner

Northwestern Medicine

Design Architect

Pelli Clarke & Partners

Executive Architect

SmithGroup

Building Envelope Consultant

Klein-Hoffman

General Contractor

Power Construction

Precast Concrete Producer & Photo Credit

Lombard Architectural Precast Products Company

Key Project Attributes

• The new pavilions complete a crescent-shaped campus organized around a central water feature. This creates a calm environment that’s deeply rooted in its setting.
• The architect wanted a building design that really took in the environment very carefully. That approach translated into a set of defining architectural traits: strong horizontality, a low overall profile, and a deliberate connection to the landscape. These characteristics are most evident in the building’s pronounced rooflines, which extend beyond the building envelope and visually anchor the pavilions to the ground.

Project/Precast Scope

• Executed in precast concrete, the roof elements evoke the deep overhangs typical of prairie-style architecture while maintaining the clean, continuous surfaces required for a contemporary health-care facility.
• While metal was initially explored for the façade, precast concrete ultimately proved better suited to the project’s goals. Metal raised concerns related to oil canning, excessive seams, and visual fragmentation, whereas precast concrete allowed the design team to generate large, flat planes with minimized —an approach that helped the new pavilions blend seamlessly with the six pre-existing structures on the campus.
• Precast concrete scope on the project encompassed 427 architecturally complex panels comprising 45,000 square feet. Nearly 30,000 square feet of those panels are brick-faced and feature two different finishes—Rudy Red Wirecut and Ironspot Velour—using Norman-sized thin brick in a running bond pattern.