Oak Point University – School of Nursing
New Home, Same Mission
Founded in 1914, Oak Point University (formerly Resurrection University) has a long history of serving its community with focused, first-rate medical education and deep ties to the largest Catholic medical providers in the Chicago area. Maintaining this connection led to embedded teaching spaces in the Presence Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital, and allowed the University to expand its programs from nursing, health informatics, and information management to include radiography. But this partnership came at a cost. Oak Point University’s students were split across floors, with no space to gather, and no room to expand. The University also lacked a central identity. Oak Point University needed a home of its own. Central to this search was supporting its students in their journey to becoming nurses and healthcare professionals.
Students Drive the Process
The undercurrent of Oak Point’s push for a new space was the aim to double its student population. A commuter school, Oak Point’s home in Wicker Park drew a diverse student body. Many of its students are considered part-time, for whom nursing represents a career change. The University also has a higher-thanaverage male population. These demographics meant that picking a site for its new home would need to value diverse voices just as much as space. HGA was selected because of our collaborative process of workshops and design thinking. From journey mapping and persona role-playing exercises, HGA uncovered and ranked key design criteria. This exploratory process also helped gain consensus for design solutions and gave Oak Point leadership, faculty, and student ownership in the design process.
Understanding Spaces and Experiences
Engagement was an integral part of the success of this project right from the start. HGA organized three Town Hall meetings with a broad and diverse constituency. Each Town Hall included 60 to 70 attendees, from university leadership to students, to faculty and staff, and facilities people. These workshops established some principle values that would drive he process forward.
- Town Hall #1: Design Thinking Workshop
The first workshop focused on empathy, and aimed to understand the different users’ experiences. The goal of this workshop was to create design criteria by understanding behavior. The attendees were divided into groups and assigned a persona that represented a key user group. - Town Hall #2: Getting to Themes
Building on the empathy generated in Town Hall #1, this second meeting began to explore how physical space could be shaped by experiences along each persona’s journey. The focus was on finding themes and overlapping ideas to create an ideal experience. - Town Hall #3: Schemes and Voting
By focusing on identifying patterns and ideal adjacencies in the program, HGA designed three schemes, and asked the groups to vote on how well each scheme addressed the priorities of their personas. After a scheme was selected, it was refined with the user groups. This created a path towards consensus, and ownership of the design.
The Insight
In-depth engagement uncovered and prioritized Oak Point’s key drivers of success: student wellness, academic success, and services and resources. HGA’s solutions not only gave Oak Point more space, they gave them a greater variety of spaces, and even new types of spaces, such as their first active learning classrooms. The solution expanded the simulation center, co-located student services in a one-stop-shop
and a front-door resources center. This resource center in particular gave commuter students–a large part of Oak Point’s student body–a place to be, to study, and to gather. wellbeing was a big component of the design, with a focus on daylight, healthy food choices, and a mental heath resources area within student services. Having well-defined success criteria for the project gave Oak Point University confidence in the final program and design solution. It also gave the university confidence in and familiarity with HGA, leading to a number of additional services, and a holistic, cohesive design experience and process. HGA was engaged across disciplines, and with a number of specialty services, including, importantly, environmental design and branding.
The Impact
Creating anew home was a generational opportunity for Oak Point University, and they took full advantage. The respect the university has for its students, faculty, and staff was embodied in the engagement process. Truly listening and hearing their voices created not only a design solution that reflected user needs, but prioritized empathy, which became a golden thread woven into the design process. The increased footprint of their new space allowed the university to incorporate a larger simulation lab, home heath lab, and exam rooms, located adjacent to one another on Level 1. This expanded the curriculum they can offer their ever-growing student population and provide the students with better opportunities to learn in a hands-on replicated environment. The university’s new branding solidified an identity that fosters academic success, mission, and pride in the university’s journey and transformation. The welcoming and vibrant colors created an atmosphere of energy and inspiration. Oak Point University has all the tools it needs to grow its student population and programs, in order to shape health education students into savvy, compassionate professionals.