Heritage Health Therapy & Senior Care

Blending modern upgrades with quality care in a decades-old facility

When tasked with bringing the 1960s-era Heritage Health Therapy & Senior Care Center into the modern age of senior healthcare, WJW worked to usher contemporary practices and wellness-centered design into a space already built for healing. After nearly five decades in the Bloomington, Illinois community, Heritage Health needed to upgrade their space in order to continue providing the highest-quality care while also offering an expanded array of services in their unique rehab-to-home facility. 

Goals included adding more space for both inpatient and outpatient physical and occupational therapy and reconfiguring key areas used by staff, patients, and visitors, allowing WJW to curate the welcoming atmosphere necessary for patient comfort and creating a healthcare space that promotes hospitality as well as healing. With upgraded and more efficient concierge-style nursing stations, an improved welcome area, and reinvigorated lighting and finishes, the result focuses on supporting a patient’s individual road to healing.

With that healing in mind, WJW made several notable interventions and one large addition. Not only is the addition home to a new 2,400 square foot therapy room including both a state-of-the-art gym and ample space for occupational and speech therapy, but it also prioritizes the project’s most unique feature. Utilizing refined heavy timber and natural sunlight, Heritage Health’s distinctive winter garden allows for fellowship, relaxation, and visitation in a nature-centric indoor setting. Given its soothing atmosphere and its proximity to the more high-energy therapy room, it comes as no surprise that the all-season winter garden is one of the most popular spaces in the building for those looking to unwind after therapy or connect with loved ones.

As a pre-existing building on a tight lot, the project provided an opportunity to make meaningful, creative changes without compromising the integrity of the building and its history. Thanks to WJW’s passion for building spaces that center on the people who will use them, Heritage Health Therapy & Senior Care is proof that working on an existing building with a relatively small budget still allows for revolutionary change. With respect for past success and an eye toward the future of healthcare, the updated building merges modern patient-centered care and a diversified care model with a longstanding structure in the community.