Viatorian Retirement Wing Experiences New Life

The retirement wing at the Viatorian Province Center has never looked better. After five months of construction, and months of planning, the long-awaited renovation was completed, allowing the retired men to move back into their suites in December – just in time for Christmas.

In the weeks leading up to it, paintings were hung, rooms were painted, carpeting laid, furniture moved in, and phones and computers set up. A blessing of the wing and open house took place in March, drawing Viatorian associates, brothers and priests from the Arlington Heights/Chicago and Bourbonnais/Kankakee regions, as well as Province Center staff.

“We’re thrilled,” says Fr. Mark Francis, CSV, Provincial, who served on the renovation committee. “We didn’t change the footprint, but it appears larger and more open because of all of the improved lighting.”

“The architect (Michael Arenson of SAS Architects) is very pleased with how it turned out,” Fr. Francis added. “He said we’ve remained true to the building’s original architecture and even enhanced it by removing all of the soffits and revealing the original sightlines.”

Highlights of the project include a new HVAC system that allows individuals to control the temperature in their own suite. A new CNA station was created from the space formerly used by a private chapel. The highlight of the new updates is the new vision for the community room. A pillar wall is the focal point, with a large screen TV on one side and a stained-glass window from the private chapel on the other. Beneath both is a double-sided gas fireplace, enclosed in a brick exterior.

The reading room also was re-done, with a new built-in bookcase and comfortable chairs around a table for reading. A panel of windows facing east lights up the room with morning sun.

Many of the original paintings, from the Viatorians’ extensive religious art collection, were hung down the main corridors of the retirement wing. A sophisticated lighting system, features overhead, pinpoint spotlights suspended by wires, resulting in these timeless paintings beautifully illuminated, and all with the touch of one switch.

Fr. Thomas Long, CSV, remembered when the original retirement wing was built, in 1980, as an addition to the Province Center.

“The original intent was for retired – but active – Viatorians to live there,” he said. “By repurposing it, we’re taking better care of our aging members, with some larger suites and a CNA station.”

Besides, he adds, Viatorians living in the wing still contribute to the community and its supporters through their communal life and prayer, such as offering morning and evening vespers, and prayer intentions at daily Mass.

At the blessing in March, Fr. Francis declared it to be a “joyful day.”

“In your name, Lord, may we make this home a place of love and hospitality, for all who live and enter here.”