The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is in the beginning stages of a $72 million plan to expand the Syracuse VA Medical Center Spinal Cord Injury/Disease Center in Syracuse, New York which will include the addition of more than 160,000 sq ft to the medical center as well as extensive renovations to the existing facilities.

Image: Clark Construction Group, LLC

The $72 million plan to expand the Syracuse VA Medical Center Spinal Cord Injury/Disease Center will include the addition of more than 160,000 sq ft as well as extensive renovations to the existing facilities.

The centerpiece of the project, the construction of a new, six-story, 30-bed, 140,000-sq-ft tower, will replace an existing structure onsite and provide operating rooms and space for spinal cord injury treatment. The cast-in-place concrete tower, designed by Syracuse-based project architects QPK Design, will feature a red-orange brick façade, matching the existing site architecture, as well as glass and glazing elements and custom metal panels. A roof terrace will sit on top of the tower, surrounded by an ornamental glass railing system and covered by a decorative metal panel canopy. Clark Construction of Bethesda, Maryland is serving as the project’s lead contractor.

Crews recently began the demolition of two existing buildings at the center. Earthwork and site utility operations will then follow the demolition, including sequencing and coordinating between existing utilities and new services.

Clark will also construct a three-story, 20,000-sq-ft structure to house the SCI therapeutic pool area which will be erected separately but attached to the tower and link to an existing parking garage. Each floor of the pool building will tie into the existing medical center at key break-through points, allowing staff easy access to the new SCI/D Center.

In addition to the new construction, Clark will perform over 40,000 sq ft of renovations on multiple floors of the existing hospital in order to remove asbestos and reconfigure the space for inpatient and outpatient SCI functions. The renovations will occur next to an active inpatient/outpatient surgical hospital, but will not inhibit day-to-day operations. Additional site work includes roadway improvements, adding new walkways, and installing site lighting. 

Project partners of the Syracuse VA Medical Center Spinal Cord Injury/Disease Center Addition include project architect, QPK Design of Syracuse, New York; structural engineer, John P. Stopen Engineering Partnership of Syracuse, New York; MEP engineer, RAM-TECH Engineers PC of Syracuse, New York; and hospital consultant Nadaskay and Kopelson Architects of Morristown, New Jersey.