Project Called Third Largest for Hospitals in Illinois
Prognosis Good for Central DuPage Hospital Expansion
by Jeffrey Steele
The construction team undertaking the enormous expansion
of Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield had to figure out how
to keep the acute care facility in full operation 24 hours
a day, seven days a week.
One of the first steps was establishing an interim exiting
program, said Robert Garrison, president of Garrison Inc.,
the project's Chicago-based development and construction consulting
firm. Garrison is perhaps best known for its work on the Prudential
Plaza project from 1986 through 1996.
"If you're going to tie new buildings into existing ones,
you need to close off certain exit corridors and provide new
ones that meet all applicable codes and are in accordance
with the requirements of the Illinois Department of Public
Health," Garrison added.
But the interim exiting program was only part of the answer.
Garrison, general contractor Pepper Construction and other
team members also had to address phasing.
"That meant vacating certain areas of the hospital, reconstructing
them, relocating certain departments within the hospital,
all in consequence with the new construction total project
schedule," Garrison said. "Almost everything within
the existing hospital ends up being rebuilt under the final
plan."
Montie Garrison, executive vice president of Garrison Inc.,
said the phasing during construction evolved from month to
month. He added that the contractor, architect and affected
hospital departments worked together with the owner's representative
to create successful solutions.
And then there was the staging, which required extensive and
intricate logistical planning because the hospital was surrounded
by construction on virtually all sides, said Jim Guyette,
Tinley Park-based senior vice president with Chicago-based
Pepper Construction Co.
"Two inspectors from the Illinois Department of Public
Health called it the most intricate construction phasing plan
they've ever seen," Guyette said. "They come to
our jobsite once a month. Because the phasing is so complicated,
it's their job to make sure the safety of patients is never
compromised."
The expansion project, the third largest hospital construction
project in the history of Illinois, involves a construction
cost of $140 million. The Certificate of Need came to $188
million, including soft costs, medical equipment, telecommunications,
fixtures and signage.
Three Major Project Components
Expansion at Central DuPage Hospital, which was originally
built in 1964, will involve three major components:
An entirely new 425,000-sq.-ft. ambulatory services pavilion,
which will include 137,000 sq. ft. of office space for almost
100 physicians.
An expansion of the maternal-child care facilities,
which will add 135,000 sq. ft. and include modernization and
expansion of physician office space, pediatric services, pediatric
intensive care beds, labor and delivery. It will also add
36 private rooms.
An expansion and modernization of ancillary services and
the surgery department in the hospital's North Tower. Included
in this work is expansion of the hospital's surgical suite,
cafeteria and kitchen, as well as pharmacy services.
Work on the entire project began in October 2002 and is expected
to be complete by the first quarter of 2005.
Dick Rouse, vice president of facility services for Central
DuPage Health, hospital owner, said the expansion will be
a major step forward for the hospital. "It will conveniently
provide centers of service around patients and visitors,"
he added. "It will obviously modernize our existing impatient
and outpatient and ancillary services.
"This is our attempt to redesign and modernize our facility,
to reflect advances in technology. We are adhering in this
project to a continuing shift from inpatient services to an
outpatient setting."
Building Over Busy Areas
Pepper Construction's Guyette said one of the most difficult
pieces of the project has been building new hospital floors
in the maternal-child care area directly over occupied areas.
"We're building three floors of new construction on top
of patients," he added. "All the lifts for steel
work had to be coordinated and select areas of the floor vacated.
There's extreme care taken to leave the existing roof in place
to keep the lower floors watertight. You come later on after
the building is complete and remove that roof."
He said the substantial mechanical equipment housed on the
old roof had to be relocated to the penthouse, a mechanical
enclosure on the roof that houses pumps and other mechanical
equipment.
Limited staging area has also necessitated the use of four
tower cranes. The cranes were needed to provide the dramatic
lifts required by the small staging areas, Guyette said.
The mechanical, electrical and plumbing design conforms entirely
to all existing codes, as well as Illinois Department of Health
requirements, Garrison said.
Information services will be upgraded with new equipment,
and an entirely new data center will be constructed on the
hospital campus.
Designed for Care
The expansion also presented a number of challenges for the
design team, said J. Todd Robinson, senior designer and principal-in-charge
for Earl Swensson Associates, the Nashville-based firm providing
both architectural and interior design services. One of the
design priorities was providing "portals of care"
that would integrate inpatient care, outpatient care and physicians
in an operationally efficient and user-friendly design.
To achieve this, designers created a vertical outpatient mall
within the ambulatory services pavilion, with convenient access
from parking. Patients headed to the cardiology floor can
park on the same level as cardiology services, then walk directly
into the mall to obtain outpatient cardiology services. All
cardiologist offices will be located on that level. The outpatient
mall is adjacent to an outdoor courtyard.
"A lot of times, when you go into a building, you get
lost within a maze of corridors," Robinson said. "With
this building, though it's very large, you're able to orient
yourself to the courtyard and know where you are within the
building itself. Not only does [the courtyard] allow natural
light to flow into the building and provide a healthy environment,
it also allows visitors to not totally rely on signage."
Another design hurdle came because the floor-to-floor heights
in the existing hospital weren't adequate for current-day
practices.
The response from Swensson Associates was to call for flat-slab
construction, which took the structural depth out of the space
to provide adequate floor-to-floor heights.
"Within the existing structure was post-and-beam construction,
with a beam depth and a slab integrated but on top of [the
beam]," Robinson said. "We eliminated that beam
depth through flat-slab construction. That depth allowed us
additional plenum space that permitted us to run our mechanical
ductwork and lighting fixtures above the ceiling in adequate
space."
Designers also had to provide architecture that enhanced the
facility while meeting Winfield village officials' call for
a traditional look. Efforts were made to blend new brick with
existing brick.
In addition, a man-made cut-stone-like product called Arristcraft
was used for roof cornices to provide some of the required
traditional appearance. And a liberal use of curtain wall
was incorporated to somewhat offset the enormous scale of
the building.
| KEY
PLAYERS |
| OWNER: |
Central DuPage Health,
Winfield, Ill. |
| OWNER'S
REPRESENTATIVE DEVELOPMENT AND CONSTRUCTION CONSULTANT: |
Garrison
Inc., Chicago |
| GENERAL
CONTRACTOR : |
Pepper Construction
Co., Chicago |
| ARCHITECT:
|
Earl Swensson Associates,
Nashville, Tenn. |
| MECHANICAL
ENGINEER: |
Robert G. Burkhardt
& Associates, Chicago |
| CIVIL
ENGINEER: |
Bollinger,
Lach & Associates, Oak Brook, Ill. |
| STRUCTURAL
ENGINEER: |
Structural
Design Group, Nashville, Tenn. |
'Two inspectors from the Illinois
Department of Public Health called it the most intricate
construction phasing plan they've ever seen.'
- Jim Guyette, Pepper Construction Co.
'This is our attempt to redesign
and modernize our facility, to reflect advances in technology.'
- Dick Rouse, Central DuPage Health
|
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