The recently completed Ipsen Conservatory, which rises to a peak of 17 feet, sits on a rooftop at the Rosecrance Griffin Williamson adolescent treatment center and overlooks the 7-acre Healing Garden.
The new 735-square-foot conservatory will function as a glass-and-steel classroom, allowing Rosecrance's Experiential Therapies Department to offer horticultural therapy throughout the year to adolescents in treatment for substance abuse at the residential campus. Programming in the new conservatory will work in tandem with the horticultural activities and nature-based experiential therapies that take place in the Healing Garden.
A celebration to mark the opening of the Ipsen Conservatory was held from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Monday, April 29, at the campus, 1601 N. University Drive, Rockford, IL.
"There are so many lessons in nature that can nurture recovery, and our staff now has one more excellent resource to help adolescents who come to us for care," said Rosecrance President/CEO Philip W. Eaton. "The Ipsen Conservatory is a one-of-a-kind facility that was designed to fit a specific space and serve a specific purpose. We are grateful to generous donors who helped to make it possible."
The Ipsen Conservatory was funded, in part, with donations from friends of Rosecrance, including Susan Ipsen, who provided the initial gift. The project cost about $500,000.
The project had some peculiar challenges, said Rosecrance Project Manager Gary Larson.
"The biggest challenge was trying to work in an environment that people were living in," he said.
Some considerations peculiar to this project included:
The Healing Garden and a landscaped courtyard directly under the conservatory site could not be disrupted, and therapeutic programs could not be interrupted by construction.
Workers could not access the project site through the building because of the nature of the work on campus. An egress stairway was built from the ground at the back of the treatment center to the top of the building to allow construction workers outside access to the project site.
To prevent damage to the Healing Garden and courtyard, all work was staged from the maintenance service area on the other side of the building. A crane was parked there to lift building materials, including steel beams up to 30 feet long, over the building's main roof to the project site.
The conservatory is directly over the kitchen, where food service employees work from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. preparing and serving meals to as many as 84 adolescents in treatment on any given day. Work crews often had to shut off water to that part of the building. To avoid disruption to the kitchen operation, much of the construction was completed after 9 p.m. and before 4 a.m.
The nighttime work schedule presented challenges in a residential treatment facility where people are sleeping during construction hours. The noisiest work could not be accomplished at night.
The conservatory was made accessible for the handicapped by raising and leveling the floor of the roof to be equal to the second-floor hallway. That project was accomplished with tapered materials and a drainage system beneath a raised floor of concrete pavers set over leveling blocks.
The completed structure is 33 feet wide and 23 feet deep and has a fully automated fire-supression system of its own. The space was fitted with several large plant stands and stainless steel work tables and stools. The conservatory is flanked by two small patios.
Larson & Darby Group provided architectural services for the conservatory, which was built by Fridh Construction Services.
About Rosecrance Rosecrance is a private not-for-profit organization offering behavioral health services for more than 14,000 children, adolescents, adults and families each year. Rosecrance provides addiction treatment through inpatient and outpatient programs in Rockford, IL, and services at six satellite offices in Chicagoland. In addition, Rosecrance offers community mental health services in Rockford and Belvidere. The organization was founded in 1916.