Healthcare

Quest Diagnostics will locate a new regional testing facility in 110,145-sf at Oak Park Office Center in West Houston. Comprised of a regional office and reference medical laboratory, the facility will be a consolidation of three office and laboratory locations currently housed in separate buildings near Houston’s Texas Medical Center. Over 500 employees will staff the 24-hour operation. The laboratory component will be approximately 50 percent of the leased space. Occupancy is slated for year-end 2003. The project architect is the Houston office of Gensler.

Healthcare giant HCA has selected Skanska to develop several addition and renovation construction projects. These include the Metropolitan Methodist Hospital and the Northeast Methodist Hospital, both located in San Antonio, Texas. Skanska will also be renovating the Lewis-Gale Hospital in Salem, Virginia. The company provided feasibility/pre-construction services for these three projects. The Metropolitan Methodist Hospital will include a 90,000-sf women’s services center, a catheter lab addition and a new connector bridge.

Walter Reed Army Medical Center will completely convert its Walter Reed Army Institute of Research facility in Washington, D.C., from a clinical and research structure to a commercial office building. Construction on the 300,000-sf facility is expected to take two years. The project team includes architect Leo A. Daly, general contractor James G. Davis Construction, project manager Keenan Development Ventures, and property manager Insignia/ESG. The project was structured by the Department of Defense.

Maria Parham Hospital will begin construction on a five-story, 131,000-sf tower in summer of 2003. The $52.8-million expansion project is the largest in the hospital’s 78-year history. Replacing much of the existing hospital, the tower will house a new emergency department, imaging and radiology, intensive care, a women’s center, a neonatal unit, a surgical patient unit, and five operating rooms. Renovations to 46,600 sf of the existing hospital will create a 25-bed unit adjoining the surgical patient unit on the new tower’s fourth floor.

Coney Island Hospital in Brooklyn has begun construction of its new 120,000-sf, 7-story addition. Construction manager for the $66-million modernization project is the New York Division of Skanska USA Building. The project, being undertaken on behalf of the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York, commenced in January 2002.

Sutter Solano Medical Center in Vallejo has begun construction of the 80,000-sf Sutter Fairfield Surgery Center and Health Village in Fairfield, Calif. The $26- to $27-million project will include an outpatient care center and medical office building and is slated for completion in April 2004. Additionally, Sutter Delta Medical Center will construct a new women’s health facility and will expand its Antioch emergency room. Sutter Tracy Community Hospital is expanding its emergency, birthing, and surgery services.

Emory University has initiated construction on a new 144,000-sf, $42-million pediatrics building in Atlanta. The six-story facility, slated for completion in summer 2004, will house 31 exam rooms grouped with separate waiting rooms. Setting apart the Emory Children’s Center and the Department of Pediatrics, the facility will consolidate and replace several smaller pediatric operations, providing increased clinic, office, and research space.

Weslaco Hospital recently broke ground on a new 40,000-sf Conference Center at Knapp Medical Center in Weslaco. Constructed by contractor McCarthy, the $4.8-million project will house a 4,800-sf multipurpose meeting room seating 200, three classrooms seating 25, a computer lab, and Education Department offices. The facility will also house the Diabetes Center, Accreditation, Quality Management, and the Hospital Information Services departments. Designed by PageSoutherlandPage of Houston, the project is slated for completion in February 2004.

Kaiser Permanente will begin construction of a 637,000-sf medical center on its Antioch campus in 2004. The project will include a 297,000-sf medical office and a 340,000-sf, 150-bed hospital. The medical center is slated to open in 2007, pending regulatory approval. Kaiser is also building a 50,000-sf medical center in Tracy, Calif. expected to reach completion in spring 2005.

Virtua Health has completed its new $12-million emergency department expansion and renovation project in Voorhees, N.J. The facility, housing 35,000 sf of additional space and 36 new examination and treatment rooms, celebrated its grand opening on May 17, 2003. 

The D.C. Department of Health’s Emergency Health and Medical Services Administration is planning a mobile medical unit to provide surge capacity including triage, decontamination, and vaccination in the event of a crisis. The mobile facility will be comprised of two core parts. A hard shell component, similar to a trailer, will carry eight critical care beds and be hauled by an 18-wheel truck. A soft-shell component that can be pulled by a pickup truck will fold out into four individual climate-controlled tents housing eight to ten beds each.

The University of Texas Southwest Medical Center is engaged in the demolition and renovation of 24,000 sf of advanced cell biology workspace in Dallas. Omniplan Architects of Dallas designed the project, which will be completed by contractor McCarthy in two distinct phases.

Omaha, Neb.-based Alegent Health is working with contractor McCarthy to develop 443,000 sf of new construction and 158,000 sf of renovation spread over Alegent’s four medical centers in the greater Omaha area. Included in the project is construction of six major structures, the vertical expansion of an existing radiology building, along with significant site and physical plant work. The majority of the work – all to be completed by August 2005 – is being done in and around operational facilities. The project architect is Leo A. Daly of Omaha, Nebr.

Los Angeles County and the University of Southern California Medical Center are developing a 600-bed replacement hospital in Los Angeles. Designed by architects HOK of Los Angeles and LBL Associated Architects of Santa Monica, the 1.5 million-sf project will include a seven-story outpatient building, an eight-story inpatient tower, a five-story diagnostic treatment building, and a central energy plant. The project is being constructed by a tri-venture of McCarthy, Clark Construction Group, and the Hunt Construction Group.

The Veterans Affairs Medical Center is planning to break ground in late 2003 on the first two buildings of its planned $160-million City of Medicine campus in Durham. Totalling 96,000 sf of office and retail space, the two facilities will be developed by LCOR of Berwyn, Pa. The City of Medicine is a mixed-use project comprised of ten new medical research, office, retail, hotel, and apartment buildings. Thirty-five percent of the facilities will be leased to federal government-related tenants. Some VA hospital functions may be relocated to the new development.