IMEG provided engineering design as well as energy modeling, architectural lighting and construction administration services for the new 200-bed Illinois Veterans Home, which offers a resident-centered model of care dedicated to independent living and memory support. The facility is being built near Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital and public transportation.

The five-story facility features single-occupancy rooms with private bathrooms and common areas for dining and meeting with visitors. Units also will provide special care for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, long-term, and secure special care needs. Other spaces include nurses’ stations, 16 residential kitchens, a commercial kitchen, offices, and an auditorium. The building also includes a Smoking Room with a dedicated exhaust fan.

The facility is designed to meet LEED Silver standards, use 27 percent less energy than a baseline code-compliant building, and reduce water use by 47 percent. Sustainable features include heat recovery, heat recovery chiller, LED lighting, occupancy sensors, green roof, low-flow plumbing fixtures, and building automation systems controls. Key system capacities are a 590-ton chilled water plant, 309 BHP boiler and 1 MW emergency generator station. Challenges for the design team included acoustical control, providing system redundancy, creating aesthetics with architectural lighting, low floor-to-ceiling heights and integrating BAS.