IU Health Bloomington Hospital at the Regional Academic Health Center

In addition to replacing the current hospital, the new hospital provides an environment to practice, teach, learn, heal and ultimately improve the quality of life of those it serves.

CSO’s success in leading large, complex projects positioned the firm as an ideal partner when IU Health sought a firm to take on management of the overall design team for completion of the hospital and clinic. The complexity of the project, along with having numerous firms involved, presented an opportunity and challenge. CSO’s past experience enabled the firm to quickly engage and provide management services on behalf of the Health System. In addition to providing overall project management, the CSO team worked closely with the project partners to oversee and progress design concepts and strategies. A collaborative culture where team members contributed equally, and frequently, was put in place on day one. This simple strategy positioned the designers around the table with the users groups to ensure quantitative and qualitative information gathering, resulting in informed design decisions.

The result of a collaborative process with IU Health, project partners, and CSO, the new IU Health Bloomington Hospital provides a patient, family, physician and employee experience that is welcoming, intuitive, and serene. Details such as the integration of local art, which connects the facility with its surroundings, underscores IU Health’s commitment to cultivating a culture of community pride while enhancing the emotional wellbeing of those served by the facility. Healthcare services provided by the facility include office visits, diagnostic testing, inpatient services, a Women’s Center, outpatient care, a trauma center, and an emergency department.

Tri-North Middle School

Monroe County Community School Corporation (MCCSC) identified the need to replace the aging Tri-North Middle School. CSO and BrainSpaces, an expert in brain-based educational planning and design, led a visioning and programming process that enabled CSO to design a new building tailored to the specific needs and vision of Tri-North students, teachers, and administrators.

The building layout utilizes next generation learning elements including an open media center, collaboration spaces, and small group rooms throughout the building. Teachers and administrators expressed the need for spaces to be flexible and adaptable to a rapidly changing educational world. CSO’s design addresses the need for flexibility by implementing features such as the use of operable theater seating in the Performance / Large Group Instruction space, operable partitions in Science and STEM labs, and spaces that are planned to facilitate the use of both departmental and interdisciplinary teaching models.

MCCSC also emphasized the need for sustainable design considerations which were implemented with plans for a geothermal system, solar array on the gym roof, and use of local materials and native plants. The new Tri-North Middle School has become a crown jewel for this Bloomington community.

North West Residence Hall

Located in the North Neighborhood Development of campus, the building is comprised of two residence towers, containing a community of 250 students per tower. Student rooms are mostly double configuration, with a mix of single and ADA compliant rooms per wing. Each floor contains approximately 27 rooms, including one Resident Assistant room. Bathroom facilities are arranged in four groups per typical floor, containing shared lavatory space and private toilet/shower compartments. Each residential floor of each tower has a dedicated lounge and kitchen space.

A central connector between each tower houses shared facilities such as laundry, group study, lounge, fitness center, mail, and administrative office spaces. Included in this two-story connector is a large multi-purpose room for the community, as well as designated Living-Learning maker spaces for Education. This connector acts as the main entry to the complex. This project was designed in collaboration with Hanbury.