The 21st century ministry headquarters workspace was recovered by our team from a campus of connected buildings originally slated for demolition as part of a downtown redevelopment master plan. The original structures included the steel frame and white terra-cotta-clad Schipper and Block department store building designed by Holabird and Roche in 1905, an adjacent mid-century Annex constructed in 1951, the Super A&P Market Building constructed in 1933, and portions of a parking structure entrance pavilion dating back to 1949. These buildings were combined into contiguous, collaborative workspace and restored to their 1951-period condition, the first point at which all structures existed together on the site, under the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties.
The renovated building consists of seven above-grade floors and a three sub-grade level terrace from the Adams Street entrance, facing onto the city’s civic core down to Washington Street, and is adjacent to museum and river frontages. A mix of uses fill out the headquarters, including OSF Healthcare administrative offices, an OSF history installation, event spaces, a lobby café, and a restaurant.
Our team began the renovations by designing around three guiding principles, including building an economic catalyst, promoting the greater good, and creating a flexible work environment. Our team also incorporated strategies to include technologies representative of the OSF mission such as photos, artifacts, and digital media across the premise through both a digital and physical museum. The museum, paired with 21
st century private and group working environments, led the designs to become multi-faceted and open. The defining and blurring of public and private spaces was at the forefront of our design plans. By modernizing the work environment, this former retail building once known as the “Big White Store”, would again become a center for the values of OSF Healthcare and promote a better future of Downtown Peoria.