The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) is a world-leading medical center treating difficult patient conditions through a model of integrated research, education and patient care. RIC engaged HDR|Gensler to design its new flagship facility, The Shirley Ryan AbilityLab®, with several farsighted goals, including: leveraging the new hospital to express RIC’s vision; doubling the Institute’s size and capability to serve; and establishing a new paradigm in rehabilitation care. Designed around five innovation centers, this new model of rehabilitation care embeds cutting-edge research and clinical activities directly into the patient care setting. A unique space for collaboration and discovery called The AbilityLab now forms the nucleus of each floor, infusing 21st-century biomedical science into the clinical environment for the purpose of accelerating recovery and advancing human ability. (Gensler)