Updated plans have been announced for a new healthcare facility at 1601 N Harlem Avenue in the Galewood sub-neighborhood of Austin. Located on the northeastern corner of the intersection with W North Avenue near Lindberg Park, the new structure will replace a currently vacant lot that once held a large Sears store which was demolished in October of 2020. Now Rush Oak Park Hospital, part of the Rush Hospital system, has presented updated plans for their new outpatient center along with the site’s owner Novak Construction.
Site context plan of 1601 N Harlem Avenue via Google Maps
View of previous Sears store via Preservation Chicago
Originally announced last year, the project is the third proposal to be pitched at the site since the Sears store was removed. However Rush Oak Park, whose hospital is just two miles to the south, aims to bring services to an area that has long suffered from disinvestment with a life expectancy rate significantly lower than other parts of the city. The new spaces will allow Rush to offer primary care as well as urgent care to locals, in a trend of similar smaller facilities popping up across the South and North sides.
Rendering of 1601 N Harlem Avenue via Rush Oak Park
Rising three stories and roughly 60 feet in height, the 60,000-square-foot facility will focus on outpatient services with an expanded range of capabilities short of overnight stays. Inside there will be a large lobby leading to 90 patient rooms providing services from imaging/MRI in a concrete-walled space to cancer, cardiology, urgent care, and small procedures. Patients and employees will have access to a 200-vehicle parking space in the rear as well as the building front North Avenue.
Rendering of 1601 N Harlem Avenue via Rush Oak Park
Future users have bus service access for CTA Routes 72 and 90 directly on the site, with a large residential project containing over 125 homes being planned for another empty lot directly to the east. The $70 million price tag is a bit cheaper than its originally estimated $100 million cost, but it did see a slight reduction in size including the removal of around 100 vehicle parking spaces. Now Rush will need the approval from the state board prior to any groundbreaking, hoping to open the facility in 2025.
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It’s NOT IN Austin. It’s in Galewood. Please correct your article
Hi Dpp, this is actually in the broader Austin community area, of which Galewood is a part. We have integrated Galewood into the article to be more precise with the location
I wish it was more pedestrian friendly. I see a lot of parking lot. I feel like the space could be used better. I’m fully supportive of the use, just not the site plan for the northeast corner.
The greatest idea!!!
More jobs!!!
It’s going to look wonderful!!!
Great job to the state of il
That’s Galewood not Austin
This project is located in Galewood, one of the many neighborhoods in the Austin Community Area of Chicago. Please visit http://www.galewoodneighbors.org to discover us. We welcome both Rush and Novak to our neighborhood
I think I like this idea better than the condos originally discussed. However, my question is, when did Harlem and North Ave become the Austin community? I had always been informed it was Galewood.
Hi NP, Galewood is considered to be a part of Austin, which is a broader neighborhood & community area consisting of Galewood, North Austin, and South Austin. We have added Galewood to the article to clarify this
It is great to see a new building going up on the gale wood area thank RUSH.
I thought they were repurposing the Sears structure at first, it is nearly the same exact shape. Advocate took over an old Sports Authority in Lakeview.
More Galewood-Montclare than Austin.
Also, there are two PACE bus routes that intersect with this location: 307-Harlem; 318-West North Avenue.