People dream about their future – dreams that often fade under the harsh light of reality.
Janet Kayser-Shirrell is a dreamer. She grew up at 14th and Adams in Quincy. A favorite activity of young Janet was bike riding to her grandparent’s home on the north side of town and crossing Quincy’s most famous street on the way.
“I fell in love with Maine Street,” she said.
In adulthood, Janet’s love of Quincy and Maine Street fueled a dream that drove her professionally, as vice president of business development and operations with FSA, an architectural firm in St. Louis.
“Quincy was one area that I chased. Blessing Hospital I chased, trying to get projects there. I really wanted to get the hospital as a client. That would be my dream, to have something absolutely wonderful on Maine Street, a state-of-the-art medical facility.”
And sometimes dreams come true.
Making the dream reality
Janet was part of the team responsible for the award-winning design submitted during a competition with other architectural firms in 2017 for construction of the Blessing Health Center 4800 Maine. The building opened on June 1, 2020.
While not an architect, Janet inspired the FSA design team that developed the 4800 Maine building concept.
“I sat down with the team and told them, ‘I am a Quincy girl. This is important to me,’” she vividly recalled. “My role in the process was to represent patients. I wanted my family to go there. I wanted it to be an experience unlike any other Quincy has to offer.”
The design team’s interpretation of Janet’s dream won over Blessing Health System leadership.
“We did not know of Janet’s Quincy roots until after FSA won the project,” said Maureen Kahn, MHA, RN, MSN, president/chief executive officer, Blessing Health System/Blessing Hospital. “But she had a way of presenting to us, a passion, and that’s what we wanted in this building. This project was about healing - bringing the elements of light and art together with an understanding of what providers need when they are taking care of a patient and making the environment conducive to that work.”
“Janet and her team seemed to connect with us,” Maureen concluded.
FSA owner, Steven Feeler, also supported Janet’s dream.
“We wanted a building that, when you approach the 48th and Maine intersection, was a presence. No question. There was a presence of Blessing at this new location,” he said.
In addition to its impressive design is its impressive size - 83,000 square feet on seven acres of land.
There are some who say the Blessing Health Center 4800 Maine looks out-of-place in the underdeveloped area of east Maine Street. Janet disagrees. She strongly believes the building is a vital point on the architectural timeline that is the entirety of Quincy’s Maine Street.
“I think it does fit there,” she said. “There is beautiful architecture running up and down Maine Street from all different generations. Now, in 2021, we have an architectural design that fits Maine Street. I think Quincy and Blessing Health System are very progressive.”
Making reality part of the dream
FSA knows Blessing’s business. Among the firm’s specialties is design of buildings for a variety of healthcare uses. FSA knows that medical facilities must withstand a lot of wear-and-tear with a low cost of maintenance.
To deliver that value to Blessing and the communities it serves, FSA used a material called Trespa on the outside of the building (the white, tile-looking areas) and for the Terrazzo flooring. The Blessing Health Center 4800 Maine is believed to be the largest building in the Midwest covered with Trespa.
“It’s a material that can withstand a lot of punishment, so requires little to no maintenance and has incredible longevity,” Steven Feeler stated.
He added the building is also very energy efficient. The canopies at the North and South entrances are designed to provide shade for the waiting areas, and the windows - another key feature of the building’s design - are shaded to reduce energy use.
And here’s a fun fact from Steven about the building: If you stood the Blessing Health Center at 4800 Maine on one of its ends – straight up in the air – it’s only 35 feet shorter than the St. Louis Arch.
The dream is recognized
Russell-HBD Construction, the general contractor for the Blessing Health Center 4800 Maine project, recently submitted the building in the Associated General Contractors of America’s 2021 Keystone Awards competition, earning second place in its category.
“This was a magical project,” Steven concluded. “The contractor was great. The local subcontractors were great. Everyone was working for Blessing and they wanted to do the best job they could. They did a remarkable job and are proud of that building. It was an amazing project.”