Michael De Rouin, Firm President and Commissioner for the Berwyn Historic Preservation Commission, has led his Commission to the approval of the PCC Family South Health Center, located at 6201 West Roosevelt Road in Berwyn, as a Berwyn Historic Landmark for its significant representation of mid-century modern architecture.
The original building fulfilled several uses throughout its lifetime, including, originally, a furniture showroom and, more recently, educational spaces with laboratories and an auditorium. It was constructed in brick, limestone, and lava rock with a shallow-pitch roof and long, horizontal themes, and stands today as an faithfully adapted example of mid-century modern architecture, and an important monument for the City of Berwyn that has been recognized by numerous organizations including the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency and the Program in Historic Preservation at the Art Institute of Chicago. Most recently, the building received status as LEED Gold Certified by the U.S. Green Building Council—Berwyn’s first to receive such a certification.
Manske, Dieckmann, Thompson Architecture faithfully rehabbed the building to create the 18,000 square foot health center, carefully preserving the mid-century features of strong geometric forms, wide glass, especially the second-story “glass box” conference room, and the lava rock corner. The center’s ground floor houses a clinical services facility and the second floor includes community meeting rooms, a dental suite, behavioral health services and administrative offices.
Sustainable features include the re-use of more than 95% of the existing building shell and structure, roofing designed to reduce urban heat island effects, extensive insulation to reduce heating and cooling loads, green wall landscaping needing no irrigation to provide sun shading and partial screening for waiting rooms from street traffic, large expanses of glass to make use of natural lighting, and the use of energy efficient lighting fixtures, recycled/recyclable materials, and low-emitting materials throughout.
During a meeting of the Commission on May 15th, Mayor Robert Lovero and Commissioner Rebecca Houze presented a plaque commemorating the building’s designation to Robert Urso, President of PCC Community Wellness Center, and architect Patrick Thompson of Manske Dieckmann Thompson (MDT) Architecture.
