Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/67043
art full The David Lee Csicsko- designed stained-glass windows in the Wood Chapel at Lurie Children's Hospital. powerful prayer THE NEW ANN & ROBERT H. LURIE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF CHICAGO HAS A BRIGHT AND LIVELY CHAPEL TO LET HEALING BEGIN. by thomas connors C at scan, schmat scan. Who wants one? Plenty of adults don't, and for kids, even this noninvasive test can be traumatic. So when Children's Memorial Hospital metamorphosed into the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital, the administration focused on investing this new facility with a kid-friendly décor that takes the edge off of being a patient. Rather than relying solely on bright paint colors and age-appropriate pictures to soften the clinical atmosphere, Bruce Komiske, chief of new hospital design and con- struction, collaborated with the city's leading institutions—from the Field Museum and the Art Institute to the Chicago Botanic Garden and Redmoon Theater—to fashion sense-engaging installations that make this healthcare center one of the most aesthetically sophisticated environments of its kind. 78 michiganavemag.com Central to Komiske's program is the Wood Chapel, graced by the art- work of Indiana native David Lee Csicsko, whose stained glass and glass mosaics adorn spaces as varied as St. Albe Catholic Church and the Belmont C.T.A. Station. "I've been thinking recently that we need to bring nature into sacred spaces," relates Csicsko, "because nature is calming. And when I thought of the children who come to the hospital—including my niece, who has been a patient there—I started thinking about them as young trees, growing strong. I really like making beautiful things for every- day spaces." The Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago opens June 9. 225 E. Chicago Ave. 773-880-4237; luriechildrens.org MA photography by anthony tahlier