Academic Medical

Community colleges are fulfilling an increasingly important roll in higher education, particularly in allied health fields, and as a result are focusing on modern facilities and equipment to provide hands-on training. Elgin Community College (ECC) in Illinois recently opened a new, state-of-the-art Health & Life Sciences building, which is helping the college achieve its goals of remaining competitive and expanding program offerings.

Nevada State College broke ground in January of 2014 on the $32 million Nursing & Sciences Building in Las Vegas. Designed by PGAL, the 66,000-sf facility will provide advanced science labs, classrooms, faculty offices, an auditorium, and computer labs. The construction manager for the project is Ledcor. Completion is expected in August of 2015.

The six-story, 296,500-sf University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston’s School of Dentistry includes dental clinics, simulation and pre-clinical labs, clinical support labs, a clinical research lab, classrooms, learning resource center, student center, and administrative space. The building is divided into three zones: patient and public areas on the lower floors, topped by student areas, then faculty and staff areas on the upper floors.

Gundersen Health System opened the $180 million Legacy Building in January of 2014 in La Crosse, Wis. The 430,000-sf facility comprises six patient care floors and two service floors and features entirely private patient rooms. Designed to optimize workflows with dynamic functional adjacencies, the Legacy Building includes an emergency services department with integrated trauma and urgent care. The general contractor for the project was Kraus-Anderson Construction.

All Children's Hospital is partnering with the University of South Florida to create a 300,000-sf pediatric research facility in St. Petersburg. Housing 40 investigators, the project will support medical education, training, and joint research in areas including neuroscience, behavioral health, and early childhood diseases. The estimated construction cost of the facility is $75 million.

Panola College is planning to build a 64,000-sf facility to house the departments of Science and Health Science in Carthage, Texas. Designed by Corgan Associates, the $35 million facility will provide teaching labs for biology, chemistry, microbiology, physical science, anatomy, physiology, nursing, and occupational therapy. The Science-Health Science Building will also house classrooms, lecture halls, offices, computer labs, an instrumentation room, and study suites. The project contractor is HUNT Construction.

The University of South Florida broke ground on the $50 million USF Health Heart Institute in Tampa in December of 2013. The five-story, 100,000-sf facility will feature four core laboratories for basic and applied research, including regenerative medicine; pharmacology and drug discovery; bioinformatics and genomics; and integrative cell and organ physiology. The interdisciplinary project is created in partnership with Florida Hospital Pepin Heart Institute and is slated for completion in 2015.

Vanderbilt University is planning a four-story, 160,000-sf expansion of Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital in Nashville. The $84 million tower will provide one inpatient care floor, including a 36-bed pediatric ICU, and three floors of shell space. Construction will begin in 2015.
 

Monash Health has selected Lend Lease Building as the construction manager for the 134,550-sf Monash Translational Research Facility in Melbourne, Australia. Created in partnership with Monash University, Monash Institute of Medical Research, and Prince Henry’s Institute, the $76 million project will accommodate research on cancer, neurology, inflammatory and infectious diseases, and endocrinology and metabolism. Construction will begin in 2014 with completion expected in late 2015.

Auburn University began building the $20 million Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM) in December of 2013. Located in the Auburn Research Park, the 90,400-sf facility will provide classrooms, laboratories, small group interaction areas, and a technology center. The general contractor for the project is Brasfield & Gorrie. Completion is expected by summer of 2015.

Located on the southern end of the Kaiser Permanente Fontana medical campus, the new 490,000-sf, seven-story teaching hospital and inpatient tower replaces an existing main hospital, some of which will be converted for outpatient use. With more than 500 physicians and 4,400 support staff serving more than 440,000 members, the 314-private-bed hospital includes a 28-private-bed neonatal intensive care unit and a 51-room emergency department.

The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston is designing a $42 million research facility to replace a building damaged by Hurricane Ike in 2008. The six-story, 93,000-sf project will provide laboratories, research support space, and mechanical areas. Construction is expected to begin by March of 2015 with completion following in summer of 2017.

Methodist Healthcare is initiating a $200 million expansion of its San Antonio campus. Adding approximately 500,000 sf to Methodist Hospital and Methodist Children's Hospital, the project involves construction of two new patient towers in the South Texas Medical Center. Over 90 percent of the facilities' inpatient space will be converted to private rooms and both emergency departments will be enlarged. Completion is expected in 2017.

Cook Children’s Medical Center will begin construction in January of 2014 on a $349 million expansion of its Fort Worth campus. The project includes construction of a six-story, 314,000-sf tower and a two-story, 16,560-sf utility plant. A cardiology center, additional exam rooms, and lab space will be built. Cook's existing facility will also be renovated; the emergency department will be expanded and surgical suites will be enlarged and upgraded. Construction of the tower and utility plant will reach completion in late 2017, with internal renovations finishing in 2018.