For Justin Adams, senior project director at McCarthy Building Cos., delivering the 330,000-sq-ft expansion at Mayo Clinic’s North Phoenix campus “was truthfully one of the most amazing projects and experiences that I’ve had in my career. This was different.”

The expansion, delivered via an integrated project delivery approach, required expanding three areas—including 60,000 sq ft of added hospital space and 20,000 sq ft for three new operating rooms, as well as new shell space and clean supply spaces. It was the roughly 250,000-sq-ft vertical clinic expansion, however, that pushed challenges to another level, requiring removal of the existing roof, while still protecting floors below where cancer patients were receiving treatment. With the building constrained by existing structures on three sides, vibration control was a primary concern. Rather than risk using potentially disruptive hard connections to link new and existing structures, the team designed a 1,473-linear-ft system of expansion joints to minimize vibration risks. It also opted for a unitized curtainwall skin system that minimized disruption to the existing facility and accelerated construction.

Adams credits the project’s timely completion—in just 18 months—with minimal punch-list items lingering at the end, he says, to the collaboration among the diverse group of stakeholders that began meeting one year before construction began. Further aiding collaboration—and final outcomes—was that more than 70% of the project’s trade partners took on design-assist roles.