AURORA, Illinois (November 22, 2011) — Leopardo has reached the half-way point of a major room modernization and privatization project at Provena Mercy Medical Center.  Of the 88 rooms being renovated, 42 are complete.  Designed to maximize space, each room boasts 218 square feet, more than any hospital in the surrounding area.  To make stays more comfortable and conducive to healing, each single-patient room is equipped with flat-screen televisions, newly replaced windows and new guest chairs.

Provena Mercy recently gave a VIP sneak peak of the new rooms to Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner, State rep. Linda Chapa Lavia, members of the Provena Mercy Medical Center Foundation and a reporter from the Aurora Beacon News.  “It’s a lot brighter. More cheerful now,” Mayor Weisner told the Beacon News.  “It’s a lot nicer than my bathroom,” he added with a laugh.

According to the November 15, 2011, article in the Aurora Beacon News, “Not only are the rooms aesthetically pleasing, but they are practical as well. Patients have access to regulate their room’s temperature, lighting and noise level. Single-occupancy rooms also decrease their risk of infection and regulate the number of interruptions by caregivers normally treating two patients.”

As part of the multi-phased room privatization project, which will wrap up in late 2012, Leopardo is replacing the HVAC and plumbing infrastructure as well as all exterior windows.  The new, more efficient HVAC system serves more than 500,000 square feet of space. Jensen & Halstead is the architect on the project.

In 2006, Leopardo completed a 16,000-square-foot intensive care unit (ICU) at Provena Mercy and, in 2005, Leopardo built a 98,000-square-foot surgery center, one of the largest capital initiatives of the Provena Health System.

For more information about the patient room modernization, check out these recent media stories:

• Aurora’s Provena Mercy shows off renovation project (Chicago Daily Herald, November 15, 2011)
• Provena Mercy shows off major hospital room upgrade (Aurora Beacon News, November 15, 2011)

LISLE, Illinois (November 9, 2011) – Leopardo is building a three-story, 95,000-square-foot medical office building for DuPage Medical Group in Lisle. Located at 430 Warrenville Road, at the intersection of I-88 and I-355, the facility will house a state-of-the-art cancer center for DuPage Medical Group and Rush University Medical Center, part of a recently announced partnership to bring university-level cancer care to the Western suburbs.

The medical office is designed with two wings – one for the outpatient diagnosis and treatment of cancer; the other serving as a medical office building for primary care, specialty care and advanced diagnostic services.

According to a November 1, 2011, Daily Herald article, “the first floor of the cancer center wing will house a cancer resource center and radiation therapy services. The second floor will house a chemotherapy infusion center. The third floor of the cancer wing will be used for comprehensive cancer clinics staffed by both [DuPage Medical] group and Rush physicians. Rush will provide specialty services in the areas of hematology, lung cancer, melanoma, thoracic surgery, gynecologic oncology and brain tumors.”

Ranked by Modern Healthcare magazine as one of the nation’s top 20 healthcare contractors, Leopardo is the trusted healthcare builder for 40 hospitals and multiple physicians groups. Since 2002, Leopardo has managed nearly 100 unique construction projects for DuPage Medical Group, including its 92,000-square-foot medical office in Glen Ellyn, completed in early 2009. Leopardo is serving as general contractor on the Lisle cancer center/medical office building with Eckenhoff Saunders as architect. The expected completion date is December 2012.

For more information, please visit:

• DuPage Medical Group press release (10/13/11)
• Daily Herald article (11/1/11):
• Chicago Tribune article (10/13/11)

Located in Schaumburg at 929 W. Higgins Rd., just west of the Higgins Rd. (Rt. 72) and Golf Rd. (Rt. 58) intersection, the medical office building will house Barrington Orthopedics’ full-service practice with physical therapy, work hardening, work conditioning, MRI and physician offices.

To help manage construction costs, the building envelope was built of precast concrete wall panels featuring brick liner. A full basement, spanning nearly the entire footprint of the building, houses the mechanical systems and emergency generator.

The second floor includes a procedure room with recovery bays as well as a 1,400-square-foot conference center with commercial kitchen that will be used for training and large group functions.

The project, including parking lot and landscaping, was completed in less than 11 months. Leopardo was the general contractor with Tinley Park-based Arete-Knight, a division of Knight E/A, as the architect.

Leopardo is now beginning the renovation of more than 100 patient rooms on three floors of the hospital’s bed tower. The private rooms are designed to maximize space, modernize the units and make a patient’s stay as comfortable and conducive to healing as possible.

Leopardo, serving as the general contractor, is providing both the pre-construction and construction services with Jensen & Halstead as the architect.

According to Crain’s description of the video, “the latest forecast shows construction activity is slower than initially expected this year. But at least one local contractor [Leopardo] says the market is improving.”

“Leopardo is breaking ground on several new projects this year.  The company has hired about 10 people recently,” said Chicago Business Today Host Lisa Leiter.

In recent months, Leopardo has been awarded about 20 projects totaling approximately $70 million worth of construction.

Designed by Partners by DESIGN; Built by Leopardo Companies; Pursuing LEED Silver

CHICAGO, Illinois (May 28, 2010) – American Hospital Association (AHA) recently moved into its new 118,000-square-foot headquarters on four and a half floors at 155 N. Wacker Dr. The newly finished space, which is pursuing LEED Silver Certification, was designed by Partners by DESIGN incorporated and built by Leopardo Companies.

The facility maximizes transparency through spatial arrangement of offices, workstations and ancillary functions. Use of transparent, translucent and reflective materials in combination with warm wood tones and natural materials provides a relaxing spa-like environment in which to work.

AHA’s mission was to provide a facility that empowers employees to be energized to succeed through a thoughtful, open environment, incorporating natural light and ancillary “outside the office” workspaces.

Integration of AHA branding elements throughout the space reinforces information flow between groups as well as the AHA organizational overview. Gallery spaces were dispersed throughout the facility whereby history and future are brought together through fixed and multi-media elements.

Behind the scenes, Leopardo installed state-of-the-art mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems, including Lutron lighting systems, an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), pre-action fire protection and a direct digital control (DDC) HVAC system with 24-hour cooling. A data center supported by nine intermediate distribution frame (IDF) rooms for wiring were completed on an accelerated schedule seven weeks prior to substantial completion.

The AHA project team consisted of Project Manager Ken Soltis Associates with Partners by DESIGN incorporated as architect and Leopardo Companies as general contractor.

SCHAUMBURG, Illinois (April 9, 2010)

Located in Schaumburg at 929 W. Higgins Rd., just west of the Higgins Rd. (Rt. 72) and Golf Rd. (Rt. 58) intersection, the medical office building will house Barrington Orthopedic Specialists’ full-service orthopedic practice with physical therapy, work hardening, work conditioning, MRI and physician offices. It will open for business in January of 2011.

Leopardo is serving as general contractor with Tinley Park-based Arete 3 as the architect.

CHICAGO, Illinois (March 19, 2010)

The Project of the Year Award was in recognition of Leopardo’s Children’s Specialty Care Clinic project at the University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital.  The 24,000-square-foot renovation project included a substantial renovation to the fourth floor of the children’s hospital, exterior façade replacement, a stair tower addition, and installation of a new air handling unit and chillers in the existing building shell. The emergency room and hospital remained open around the clock during construction.

According to HACIA, its awards banquet is consistently recognized as the largest construction industry event in the Midwest.

In addition to the two HACIA awards, Leopardo has recently received multiple prestigious honors from its peers, clients and the media, including:

>> 2010 Communitas Leadership Award for Corporate Social Responsibility by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP)
>> 2009 Build to Suit Project of the Year by the Chicago Commercial Real Estate Awards for the Aurora Police Headquarters project
>> 2009 Safety Award for Excellence by the Fox Valley Associated General Contractors (FVAGC)
>> 2009 Robert M. Farrell Memorial Safety Award, presented to Leopardo’s safety director by the FVAGC
>> 2009 Project of the Year by the Construction Industry Service Corporation (CISCO) for the Aurora Police Headquarters project
>> 2009 Award for Business Excellence by the Business Ledger, a suburban Chicago business publication
>> 2008-2009 Outstanding Project by the Association of Subcontractors and Affiliates (ASA) for the Ronald McDonald House project
>> 2008 Interior Contractor of the Year at the Chicago Commercial Real Estate Awards (Leopardo has won this award four of the last eight years)

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Illinois (March 15, 2010)

Leopardo’s specialized Healthcare group is the trusted builder for more than 35 Chicago-area hospitals and constructs approximately 75 projects per year.  The scope of work includes hospital additions, renovations, ambulatory surgical centers, medical office buildings and clinics, imaging centers and senior living facilities.

Below are links to some of Leopardo’s recent healthcare projects:

• Central DuPage Hospital iMRI Operating Suite (Winfield, IL)
• Rush-Copley Medical Center ICU Expansion (Aurora, IL)
• Swedish Covenant Hospital Emergency Department (Chicago)
• University of Chicago Comer II Children’s Hospital (Chicago)
• Central DuPage Hospital Medical Office Building (Glen Ellyn, IL)
• Rush-Copley Healthcare Center (Yorkville, IL)
• DuPage Medical Group Glen Ellyn Clinic (Glen Ellyn, IL)

WINFIELD, Illinois (March 12, 2010)

“What makes iMRI unique is its implementation in the operating room as part of an integrated operating suite. The chief advantage of iMRI is that it allows a surgeon to view a tumor during the operative phase and helps to ensure that he removes as much of the mass as possible without damaging critical structures,” according to the cover article of the March/April 2010 issue of Chicago MD News.

Leopardo served as the general contractor on this three-room iMRI suite with Garapolo Maynard as the architect. In addition to the MRI and operating rooms, Leopardo also built a sub-sterile room as part of the suite.

Over the past two years, Leopardo has completed several projects for CDH, including an oncology renovation, interventional suite expansion, cytology, pediatric observation, microbiology and a 40,000-square-foot medical office building in Glen Ellyn.