Healthcare

The Veterans Administration has awarded a contract to LCOR of Berwyn, Pa., to develop a $150-million, 600,000-sf medical and research complex across the street from the Duke University Medical Center in Durham. The project will include 19,000 sf of primary care clinic space and 40,000 sf of medical and research space, plus retail and commercial space with parking on a 3.5-acre lot. As many as seven buildings are planned, with construction scheduled to begin in 2001. NBBJ, based in Research Triangle Park, N.C., is the designer for the project.

Thomas Jefferson University’s planned $140-million Kimmel Cancer Center, a cancer treatment and research center, will be postponed for one year as the university raises funds for the project and searches for a solution to a potentially critical parking situation envisioned when a 400-car parking garage is demolished to make way for the new center.  The planned 380,000-sf structure, designed by the architectural firm of Perkins & Will of Chicago, will reach 20 stories and include underground parking spaces for 200 cars.

National Institutes of Health has three major projects under construction. The Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center is a $360 million, 600,000-gsf replacement hospital plus an additional 850,000 sf of research labs. The Washington office of Portland, Ore.-based Zimmer Gunsul Frasca designed the "clinical research model" building, with labs close to patient care units. Completion is anticipated in December 2002.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, has begun a $163 million renovation and expansion of the hospitals that merged in 1996. The four-year project has begun with the renovation of 60 post partum rooms to accommodate private showers, VCRs, a sleep chair and refrigerator, all of which is scheduled for completion by the end of summer 2000.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to have a guide in place by January 2001 for hospitals on "The Policy of the Reuse of Single Use Devices".

The strategy proposes the following:-to treat hospitals that reprocess single use devices in the same way it treats device manufactures

-to require submission of premarketing data as if reprocessors were seeking to market device for the first time

-to require reprocessors to label single use devices and provide instructions for use.

The National Fire and Protection Agency (NFPA) has partnered with Western Fire Chiefs Association (WFCA) and the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) to build a set of Consensus Codes--a new set of codes for the built environment. Their goal is to provide safety officials with a new consistent and compatible set of codes by the year 2003. As part of the Consensus Code project NFPA also plans to devise a NFPA Building Code.

Fort Sam Houston's historic Brooke Army Medical Center and the Beach pavilion Complex will be redeveloped by the U.S. Army working in partnership with the Pennsylvania firm Roy F. Weston Inc. as prime contractor. Local firms involved in the project are Orion Partners, Cross & Company and Ford, Powell & Carson.

University of Texas has plans for a new $19 million research building at its Health Science Center (HSC) in San Antonio. The HSC has a $131.5 million major building campaign scheduled through 2006 that will include one adult cancer research building and one building for pediatric cancer research.

Kaiser Family Foundation, the Menlo Park, Calif.-based health care and social policy research group, expects to begin construction this summer or fall on a 300,000- to 400,000-sf facility in downtown Washington. The new building will house employees currently located at Metropolitan Square.

Quintiles Transnational is building a new $3.4 million, 103,000-sf facility, Bradford Place, to consolidate its ten Research Triangle Park offices in one location. Construction began in July 1999 and is scheduled for completion in June 2000. Architects for the project are WGM Design Inc., based in Charlotte, N.C., and Bell/Knott Associates, based in Kansas City, Kan. The general contractor is the Raleigh, N.C., office of Shelco Inc., headquartered in Charlotte.

Tompkins Associates and MARC Systems have entered into a strategic alliance to offer seamless supply chain solutions to the pharmaceutical and health care industries. Through the joint efforts of the respective sales and marketing teams, Tompkins and MARC Systems will enable clients to integrate supply chain execution software with operations best practices. With its extensive functionality and strict inventory control, the MARC product suite is utilized by major pharmaceutical companies to distribute some of the most carefully controlled substances in use.

Aetna U.S. Healthcare, based in Hartford, Conn., is building a $36 million, 180,000-sf regional headquarters in Landover to house 880 employees it will relocate from its Linthicum and Falls Church offices. The Capitol region's customer service functions and medical management will be accommodated in the new facility which is scheduled for completion in summer 2000.

Balboa Naval Hospital has hired Ninteman Construction Co. of San Diego to build a $2 million, 1.1 million-gallon emergency water storage tank for the hospital. The pre-stresssed concrete tank will be built 30 feet below a nearby softball field.

Several other San Diego-area firms working on the design-build project are DYK (tank construction); Naton Engineering (earth moving); Redondo Electric (utility line installation).

University of California San Diego Medical Center is remodeling its four-story, 28,000-sf Bachman Building. Two San Diego companies are involved in the renovation: Roesling Nakamura Architects Inc. and Kvaas Construction Co.

Willis Eye Hospital plans to sell its existing hospital in Philadelphia's Center City to Thomas Jefferson University, then build a new $40 million hospital across the street in the Walnut Towers building. Outpatient ophthalmological care will be the specialty of the new facility.