SHN: Remodeling a Motherhouse Near the Mississippi

Not long ago, the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Dubuque, Iowa, needed help.

More than 5,000 women have gone through the religious institution since its founding in 1889. Today, there are around 200 sisters in Dubuque, with an average age of 84.

That lead the organization to the idea that its community, Mount Carmel Bluffs, needed to be redeveloped to better care for its aging population.

The organization chose Presbyterian Homes to lead the master planning for the community repositioning, with Pope Design Group as the project’s design partner. Developer Senior Housing Partners also was involved in the project.

The project remodeled an 18th century motherhouse and made it the centerpiece of the campus, with historic features such as a stained glass and a remodel of the campus’s chapel incorporated into the design.

The project’s historic touches, coupled with its forward-thinking elements, propelled it to the top of the Senior Housing News Architecture and Design Awards’ Best Campus Renovation/Repositioning category.

The concept

From the get go, one of the biggest challenges for the project was getting the consensus of the hundreds of Sisters that the repositioning was necessary. The goal of the project was to “preserve the site’s character and highlight the beauty of its river bluffs setting” in Dubuque, Iowa, according to documents submitted by Pope Design Group.

The project was split into two phases, with the first focusing on assisted living and skilled nursing, with the second focused on independent living. Early planning for the project began in 2018.

Ward Isaacson, Pope Design Group president and CEO, told Senior Housing News that the majority of the existing campus building needed to be razed to allow for new state of the art housing options, and gaining consensus from Sisters across the globe was a requirement before moving forward.

“We overcame that challenge by a series of thoughtful ‘town meetings,’ where all BVM sisters on campus and others around the country were brought in via video feed,” he said.

This challenge was addressed through constant communication through the BVM leadership team, led by CFO Alan Stache and Presbyterian Homes CEO Dan Lindh, which Isaacson said gave the Sisters “great confidence” the project was in good hands.

The project planners also made a decision to move the campus’s main entry to the opposite side of where it then-existed, “allowing the Mississippi bluff side to open up fantastic views, trails, and park-like space to maximize the surrounding natural beauty,” according to Isaacson.

Visit Senior Housing News’ website to find the rest of the feature.