Glendale Adventist rolls out non-rocking tower

$100-million patient facility designed to meet 2030 sesmic safety standards.

For residents and commuters, the seven-story building going up on Glendale Avenue near the 134 Freeway in Glendale might seem like just another development in this construction-heavy city.

But talk to the people in charge of completing Glendale Adventist Medical Center's seven-story patient tower and they'll tell you: There's nothing ordinary about building a $100-million, state-of-the-art healthcare facility.

"Almost all hospitals in urban areas are situated on existing, active campuses," said Robert Frockmorton, project manager for Arcadia-based J.R. Abbott Construction Co.

"Underground pipes and ducts cannot be damaged or broken without extreme consequences. You cannot trust the as-builts, and must verify location for all underground items and provide support for those that might be encountered. Also, consideration for the patients, doctors and staff that are likely to be impacted by construction activities must be looked at from several perspectives."

J.R. Abbott is the general contractor for the 230,000 sq. ft patient tower project, the first phase of which was launched in November 2003 and should be finished in December.

Phase 1 consists of a 30,000 sq. ft., 36-bed emergency room, which will be located in the basement level. One level up, a new surgical facility will occupy the entire floor. The next level, classified as the main floor, will be the lobby and outpatient services, including X-ray and laboratory facilities. Other floors will contain neurological, cardiac diagnostic and testing facilities; cardiac "step-down" units; 12-bed intensive-care unit; MRI facilities; and a bariatric program facility for treatment of the morbidly obese.

A new 500-car, above-ground parking structure, designed by Parking Structure Building Inc. of Los Angeles, has already been completed.

The second phase of the project should be finished by April 2008.

Val Devitt, master plan construction coordinator for Glendale Adventist, said the new tower is part of an effort to ensure the hospital complies with California's strict seismic safety standards

"In California, seismic stability is almost No. 1," Devitt said. "There's a state agency called the Office of Health Planning Development that has to approve everything. By 2030, all hospitals have to meet the newest and strictest codes, and that means a lot of hospitals will have to be replaced. This tower is replacing some beds in a structure that will no longer meet the new codes. After phase I is completed, we'll be tearing down the old, 1955-era building that no longer meets seismic code."

For Gary Goldberg, principal and project designer for Devenney Group Ltd., the project's Phoenix-based architect of record, a driving concern in designing the tower was cost. Hospital facilities are expensive undertakings compared to commercial projects. Unlike commercial projects, however, architects and builders need not break the bank in order to give hospitals "exterior appeal."

"There's a lot more attention paid to the exterior of a commercial project in order to put something out there that appears more upscale to attracts tenants," he said. "Often with hospitals, there's so much spent on the inside that we're forced to use more economical materials on the exterior. What we arrived at was plaster as the main exterior material of this building. But in order to provide it with the importance and durability of a building that has to last for 50 or 60 years at least, we used better quality materials in the interior than we would use in ordinary commercial construction."

Goldberg used a color palette based on existing buildings at the hospital site, located at 600 S. Glendale Ave.

"The tower will be part of a campus, so we wanted to blend in with that, and not to necessarily be viewed as a building with a unique identity," he said. "Hospitals usually grow that way: They're developed in stages and phases in order to maintain continuity of look."

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