commentNeeding to fit a new St. Jude medical tower into an existing hospital campus, the project team delivered a facility that looks and feels modern but still blends into the older hospital.
The $80-million, five-story St. Jude Medical Center Southwest Tower and Central Plant took more than three years to build. The project included the construction of an emergency department, adult critical care units and an intensive care unit.
The project team encountered some key challenges when building the tower. One of the significant challenges was adapting the site to meet the future needs of the master plan for the hospital campus. For example, utilities for the new tower needed to be installed but looking at the master plan, future buildings would require relocating the utilities again.
The project team remade plans and decided to only relocate the utilities once in preparation for the future buildings. As a result, that decision required that each utility get the necessary permitting and OK from various agencies.
Another challenge for the project team was adapting to changing technology. During the construction period, the owner re-evaluated medical equipment and technical systems and opted to alter some systems. The project team adapted and installed the new equipment.
Project Team
Owner: St. Joseph Health System, La Palma
General Contractor: Swinerton Builders, Irvine
Architect: KMD Architects, San Francisco
Civil and Structural Engineer: KPFF Consulting Engineers, Los Angeles
MEP Engineer: HDR, Pasadena
Cost Engineer: C.P. O’Halloran Associates Inc., Westlake Village
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