Photographing the new Center for Advanced Care at Illinois Masonic Hospital feels like coming full circle to some degree. My very first job when I moved to Chicago in 2000 was in the Virology lab here. The hospital is now owned by Advocate Healthcare, which was actually the reason I left that job to work at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Advocate outsourced all the specialty labs so I was out of a job after one short year. However, I think it all worked out just fine.

I first noticed the completion of this building, designed by SmithGroupJJR, a few months ago and finally stopped by to photograph it last week. The curved glass wall on the north side of the building has caught my eye on a number of occasions and much to my surprise the south side of the building is equally as interesting.

The first few shots are my typical, more-abstracted way of photographing, in black & white of course.

For a more representative or commercial take on the building here are a few more shots. I have to thank photographer Michael Muraz (check out his work here) for his influence with these shots. He was also a presenter at the June Out of Chicago Conference, his primary focus is on cityscapes and commercial architectural photography.

While we each shoot architecture in a different way most of the time we seem to have an eerily similar approach to our subjects. Just goes to show you that even when you’re on the lookout for the same things, with the same subject each person can come away with a very different perspective.

Though I’m by no means as well versed in this type of shooting as Michael, I thought I’d try to expand my horizons a little.

Though, they’re still pretty abstracted after looking at them again….a work in progress.