Comer Children's Hospital
Cost: $142 million

The Comer Children's Hospital is replacing Children's Hospital in the University of Chicago Hospitals system.

Comer facilities include medical/surgical units, pediatric and neonatal intensive care units, surgical suites, preoperative areas, recovery rooms and typical hospital commons areas.

The hospital is named after Gary Comer, founder of the Lands' End Inc. clothing empire in Dodgeville, Wis. Comer, a native of Chicago, made a $21 million donation to help build the facility.

Siting the Structure

The block bordered by 57th, 58th, Drexel and Maryland streets was selected for the building, but the block's eastern half contained structures -the Ronald McDonald House and the landmarked American School of Correspondence - that could not be demolished.

The solution was to build a long 354-ft.-long, 133-ft.-wide structure on the block's western half, and even then, some structures were knocked down for space.

The road layout and other nearby structures in the UCH system impacted the project.

Ambulances frequently cruise down 58th Street south of Comer to deliver patients to the emergency room of the Bernard Mitchell Hospital, an adult inpatient facility. And, patient and staff traffic is heavy to the west on Maryland Avenue, which also lies alongside the Duchossois Center for Advanced Medicine.

Construction started on the site's south end and progressed north where the most room is. Crawler cranes, rather than tower cranes, were used for the erection of the 1,500 tons of structural steel.

Like many health-care facilities, the hospital has a large number of dedicated specialty systems - medical air, medical vacuum, nitrogen - as well as the mechanical, electrical and plumbing lines.

To make sure everything fits, careful coordination was done with the installation of the lines. Typically, sprinkler lines were given the top spot in the ceiling cavity because of the protection they provide against fire.

Pier-supported bridges will connect the hospital to its neighbors, one link to the Mitchell Hospital and another to the Duchossois Center.

Comer has some distinctive features, including leaf patterns imprinted in the precast for lightheartedness.

Ensuring the structure helps deliver optimal patient care was a key goal.

Mock-up rooms allowed the University of Chicago Hospitals and its clients to assess the quality inside, and the process result in modifications. For example, nursing alcoves were designed with direct viewing into patient rooms.

Return to Top of 2005 list