Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago patient Sam Powers gets a passport after completing the move from the RIC’s old building to the new Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. The AbilityLab is the largest freestanding rehabilitation hospital in the United States. (Photo by Kevin Beese/for Chronicle Media)

Holding a Cabbage Patch Kid in one hand and waving a pompon with the other, Cali Johnson triumphantly entered what she refers to as “the sparkly building.”

With her mother and sister, Kyla, by the side of her wheelchair, Cali became the first pediatric patient to ever enter the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago’s new hospital at 335 E. Erie St.

“I’m as excited as her,” Cali’s mom, Katie O’Connor, said as she wheeled her daughter into the new facility on Saturday morning.

The $550 million, 1.2 million-square-foot AbilityLab is the first “translational” research hospital in which clinicians, scientists, innovators and technologists will work together in the same space, 24 hours a day, surrounding patients, discovering new approaches and applying (or “translating”) research in real time. It is the largest freestanding rehabilitation hospital in the United States.

“Look at that view. Whoa! Look at all that,” O’Connor exclaimed as she and Cali entered the girl’s 18^th floor room overlooking the city’s skyline.

Seeing Cali’s room and all the accommodations in the facility for her daughter and other patients brought the Orland Park mom to tears.

“I just saw the gym. The old gym was the size of a bedroom and this new one is huge, and everything is kid-sized, the treadmills, everything. It is amazing,” O’Connor said. “… We just went down to the  dining room and a lady showed me the table and how it comes up and down to (Cali’s) level. I mean restaurants should have that. I’m so happy, not just for (Cali) but for all the kids.”

O’Connor, who stays with Cali every night, helping her in the aftermath of major leg and hip surgery, was excited to see a more comfortable couch for her to sleep on for the next three or four weeks while her daughter goes through four or five different therapies a day.

The Shirley Ryan AbilityLab has five innovation centers of care focused on areas of biomedical science:

• Brain
• Spinal cord
• Nerve, Muscle and Bone
• Pediatric
• Cancer Rehabilitation

“The Shirley Ryan AbilityLab is the only hospital in the world where doctors focused on solving patient challenges now work side by side with scientists focused on finding cures,” said Jude Reyes, chairman of the board of directors for the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. “The result is focused discovery and innovation on behalf of patients, who will be poised to achieve their best possible recoveries here.”

Sam Powers, a Rehabilitation Institute patient, was thrilled to be entering the new facility.

“I’ve heard a lot of hoopla about it and I’m finally glad to be able to come over,” he said, once inside the lobby of the new facility. “When I was in the old (RIC) facility, everyone kept talking about how great this was going to be and so forth. I’m glad to be here.”

Despite a planned block-long parade from the RIC’s old facility on the 300 block of Superior Street being canceled due to rain, an enthusiastic crew of staff, guests, and former patients — many holding signs of what they were told they couldn’t do and yet overcame — greeted each patient as he or she arrived by medical transport.

Paralympian Kelsey Lefevour of Chicago, a student at the University of Illinois who competes in the 100- and 400-meter races, was part of the welcoming committee.

Her mom being an employee at the AbilityLab, Lefevour, who competed in the 2016 Rio Paralympics,  felt it was important to show up and lend her support on moving day.

“It’s a bummer it wasn’t nicer out. We were going to have a parade,” Lefevour said. “Game called on account of rain.”

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— Chicago rehab center moves to new home —