Smith oversaw the opening of the organization’s new $550 million, 1.2-million-square-foot facility in Streeterville in 2017, which replaced the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago building on East Superior Street. With the new facility, the organization was renamed the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. Its leaders described it as a “translational research hospital,” meaning doctors, scientists, innovators, technologists and clinicians work in the same spaces, near patients, translating research into patient care in real time.
