Childrens Hospital Colorado Expansion Tops Out
Construction on the new $230-million East Tower at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora reached a milestone with the early July topping out of the 10-story structure.
The expansion is being built by the joint venture team of McCarthy Building Cos. Inc. and GH Phipps, in conjunction with design partners H+L Architecture and ZGF Architects LLP under an integrated project delivery tri-party agreement.
The new East Tower will connect to the existing 1.4-million-sq-ft, 298-bed Children’s Hospital Colorado facility built by the same team, which opened to patients just three years ago.
“When it came time to select a team for our expansion, I thought of our past experiences, and I immediately thought of Phipps/McCarthy,” said Leonard Dryer Jr., Children’s Hospital Colorado senior vice president and CFO. “The idea of a tri-party agreement is relatively new for construction teams and the hospital, especially. But with a team that has worked together successfully before, the experience and trust we have in each other made for a great tri-party team and a perfect match for our expansion.”
Construction of the 355,000-sq-ft addition is on schedule to complete in late 2012. Upon completion, the facility will connect to the existing hospital on the north face of the outpatient building and the east face of the hospital building. The facility will have the capacity for an additional 200 beds and will be home to cancer care, heart and rehabilitation medicine, and an advanced maternal/fetal medicine center.
In total, Children’s Hospital Colorado’s main facility at the Anschutz Medical Campus will then have a footprint of 1.8 million sq ft. The East Tower project is LEED registered through the U.S. Green Building Council and will pursue LEED certification upon completion. The team is currently coordinating aggressive material tracking and recycling of demolition and construction materials and completing full energy modeling of the East Tower addition to ensure the most advanced building enclosure and efficient mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems.
