Any major construction project in downtown Charleston, S.C., is likely to pose a challenge, whether it’s the close proximity of existing buildings that sharply constrains work and staging areas or the coastal city’s poor soils and high water table that usually necessitates intricate foundation systems.
Had those been the only significant issues facing the team building the $255-million Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital and Women’s Pavilion at the Medical University of South Carolina, the project might well be considered relatively routine. But long before the construction management team of Robins & Morton and Cumming and Brownstone Construction Group began crafting a strategy to turn the 635,000-sq-ft complex from concept into reality, it was clear that even by Charleston standards, this would be no ordinary construction project.