Esperanza Health Centers is a community-based health center whose mission is to promote healthy lifestyles and improve health status through the provision of high-quality health care and wellness services. Emphasizing prevention and education provided by a bilingual and culturally diverse staff dedicated to overcoming the barriers faced by underserved communities. Esperanza—meaning hope in Spanish—is living up to its name.
In 2015, Esperanza Health Centers identified that many of their patients had been traveling an extensive distance in order to be see their doctors. They quickly determined that the neighborhoods of Brighton Park, Gage Park and Back Of The Yards were suffering as a primary health care desert. As such Esperanza identified a site along 47th street and began the journey to transform the available health care within these communities.
The new building stands as a beacon of hope and health to the Brighton Park community. Transforming a once blighted brown lot into a canvas of orange prismatic color shifting panels, perforated by a pattern of rhomboid windows all above the continuous glazing ringing the ground floor entries. Inside visitor’s find MLEA services, a community pharmacy, a large multi-purpose room, cooking classes, and educational activities that promote health.
Connecting the building’s two floors is the main circulating staircase. As an architectural centerpiece, uses color and visual movement to lead patients from the entry lobby up to the second floor. Using warm and expressive colors that weave into the spatial design to create intuitive wayfinding for patients and visitors. The open work areas for medical caregivers and providers are designed with large walls of glazing to harvest natural light while visually connecting to the people and neighborhood of Brighton Park.
Understanding that health care is a combination of physical, mental and spiritual balance, the new Esperanza Wellness Campus is built around spaces for healing and wholeness. A fully accessible and a contemporary state of the art community health center now providing critical services that were previously absent in this area of the city.
Where once an unyielding concrete slab stretched for an entire city block, has now been transformed into a new clinic with outdoor walking and community garden spaces. Fostering community interaction by welcoming and supporting the growing student population that surrounds this site. The ground floor has been designed to draw in visitors to the building, blurring the interior and exterior. This flowing and open lobby plan, at the most predominant corner of the site, will become the central and vibrant hub of the facility.
Within the building are areas dedicated for community use: a pharmacy, a teaching kitchen used to promote healthy cooking, a large community meeting room for lectures and other educational activities, and maybe most importantly new therapy spaces for Mujeres Latinas En Action (MLEA).
One need only visit the intersection at 47th Street and California Avenue to understand the impact that Esperanza has generated. The reinvestment in this corner of Brighton Park is awe-inspiring in just the short time since Esperanza announced their plans for this building.
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