Children's Hospital of Wisconsin
Projects Nurture Care Center's Growth
by Elaine Schmidt

The disparate elements of a finely tuned building skin and the timing of a local road project have made the professional office building and parking garage under construction on the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin a complex project.

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John Oswald, director of facilities development for the Children's Hospital and Health System in Wauwatosa, said construction began in November 2003 on the seven-story, 240,000-sq.-ft. office, 1,600-space parking garage and an underground tunnel linking the structures to the buildings of the Froedtert Hospital complex across the street.

The parking garage was completed before the end of 2004. The office structure should finish in the fall, with full occupancy in November. Construction on the two structures and tunnel costs $70 million.

The project's greatest issues have been ensuring that the office building's skin is water tight, and the process of slipping a pedestrian and mechanicals tunnel beneath a busy roadway, according to Nick Stromer, project manager for construction manager for Appleton-based Oscar J. Boldt Construction.

A Ticking Clock

"We had time constraints on completing the tunnel," he said. "The county was scheduled to repave the street between the site and Froedtert Hospital starting in mid to late August. Our tunnel had to go in 35 ft. below that street at about the same time."

The solution was working around the county's work schedule with a phased installation of the tunnel.

"We started working on the first phase of the tunnel in late spring 2004," Stromer said. Work on the segment beneath the roadway, which included an extensive earth retention system of soldier piles and wood lagging, was completed by mid-August, in time for county crews to begin their roadwork.

The second phase of the tunnel, which connected the new portion to the existing hospital, also had a time constraint.

"The second portion goes right under the front yard of Froedtert Hospital," Stromer said. "We had to close one of their major access points, put the tunnel in place, bring the site back up to grade and have their entrance re-opened by Nov. 15."

Stromer cited teamwork with project subs as part of the recipe for the project's success.

To go along with the tunnel challenges, exhaust fumes and construction noise presented concerns for building occupants nearest the tunnel construction.

"The area that was affected was the human resources department," Stromer said. "Certain work was done early in the mornings or on Saturdays, but frequently we had to stop work for the staff concerns over noises or smells.

The third segment of the tunnel, the portion connecting the parking garage and the tunnel's first segment, was completed in late November.

Keeping Out Elements

Moisture and humidity infiltration had been a major concern throughout the design and construction phases of the professional office building.

Stromer said water and moisture leaks have been an ongoing problem in one of the medical center's existing buildings, resulting in tremendous concern over water and moisture tightness on the professional office building.

"It was made very clear that there could be no leaks in this building," Stromer said.

To ensure that the building's skin would perform as planned, a mock-up wall was constructed at a test facility in York, Pa., and put through rigorous weather tests to make sure that materials and installation techniques were sufficient to the task of maintaining a sealed environment.

"We went to the testing lab with the various contractors who were going to work on the site and we did a series of tests to determine air, water and moisture infiltration," Stromer said. The tests included thermal variations to see if extremes in temperatures had any effect on infiltration.

"This was all documented and recorded," he added. "We have taken that information and developed an enclosure quality management program that is a computer-based tool. You can sit in a chair and view this as an interactive presentation."

The program is used to help train the workers who will have a hand in constructing the air vapor barrier, installing windows, etc.

"All workers are required to attend this 20- to 25-minute session to see what lessons we learned at the mock-up and learn the right way to do things," Stromer said.

"It doesn't take over the quality control that's required on something like this, but it's different than just having a worker come out and put in a window. He can see what didn't work and see the right way to caulk and do the flashings."

The mock-up process took about 2.5 months and required about 15 people to travel to York.

Designed for Children

The building's designers are The Zimmerman Group of Wauwatosa, Wis., and Shepley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott in Boston. Stromer said Shepley Bulfinch has focused on the building's exterior, with Zimmerman focusing on the interior. Interior design is being completed as the building shell goes up.
Stromer said the interior design was going to be released in January. "The various contractors will be brought on board after that," he added.

He said the schedule has allowed plenty of time for decision and planning for the interior space and minimized changes that would likely have taken place had interior work begun earlier in the process.

Dave Stroik of The Zimmerman Design Group agreed. "Taking longer to ferment the design, assuming you are working up to the last minute, gets the best possible result and means fewer changes," he added.

Stroik said the inspiration for the building's interior design stemmed from a mandate to keep the children that will use the facilities in mind at all times.

"This building is all about serving children," he said.

That philosophy extended to the selection of a color palette that was cheery and welcoming without relying on the standard primary colors.

"The right way to talk to children is not to use 'baby talk,'" Stroik said, adding that the color palette contains blue, purple, green and various neutral earth tones.

He said the buildings are part of a larger master plan that covers structures that may not be built for another 20 or 30 years and unifies those buildings with a shared architectural vocabulary.

On the function side the parking garage was designed with "speed ramp," which allows drivers to progress quickly from top to bottom in the structure without waiting for cars backing out of spots or drivers who choose to wait for a soon-to-be-vacated spot.

Stroik added that the tunnel posed an interesting drainage challenge for designers.

"The tunnel pitches toward Froedtert, but we had all drainage flow toward the Professional Office Building," he saidFroedtert. "There might have been 100 engineering solutions to the drainage issue but only one that would be really palatable."

The office building and garage are across the street from existing hospital buildings, on a green-field site. The site's ample distance from existing medical center buildings meant there were no concerns about noise, fumes or vibrations having an impact on patient care areas, but the Flight For Life helicopter flight paths required extra lighting on the project's crane.

"We contacted Flight For Life and discussed the specific lighting requirements so that they can see the crane at all times," Stromer said.