The tower was originally planned to be a seven-story facility that would hold 92 beds, 28 intensive care beds and 12 operating rooms in 2014. The facility will add an additional 300,000 square feet and will also create 100 physician positions and 600 additional health care jobs.

The design was made to create the option for an additional four-floor expansion at a future time, but with the patient volume, the Hospital Authority Board has decided to begin immediately, according to a hospital statement. The construction equipment will stay on-site, and after the Cambridge tower is complete in 2017, the construction of the additional floors will begin and the levels are expected to open a year later in 2018, according to the statement. One of the levels will be immediately open to patients and will add an additional 32 beds to the facility, while the other three levels will be “shelled in” to prepare for future expansion.

The University of Kansas Hospital is an independent hospital authority that received no state or local funding and relied on their strong fiscal performance and the support of donors. The tower’s original budget was $270 million, but after the expansion was planned, the hospital added and additional $50 million to the cost of the construction. The hospital has a goal of raising $100 million through philanthropy, and as of the Cambridge Tower’s groundbreaking in 2014, the hospital has raised $42 million.

“We are doing much more than constructing a new building. We are building this hospital as we put Kansas City on the national medical map. Great cities have great academic hospitals,” said Greg Graves, a major donor and CEO of Burns & McDonnell, in a statement.

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The seven-story facility will house 12 operating rooms and two of the fastest-growing specialty areas at the hospital: neurosciences and surgical oncology, including ear, nose and throat cancers. It will also include imaging, lab and pharmacy services. Its 92 beds will include 28 intensive care beds.

CannonDesign of Grand Island, N.Y., served as the project’s designer and Kansas City, Mo.-based JE Dunn Construction will oversee the construction process.

“Welcome to the future of The University of Kansas Hospital,” said Bob Page, president and CEO of The University of Kansas Hospital, in a statement. “We have seen an increase in demand for our outstanding clinical services. We have had a full hospital with record patient demand for the last three months. It has meant we are using all our creativity to provide patients with the high-quality services they are seeking. It also means we need the beds and operating rooms Cambridge North will provide to meet patient demand.”

The project went through extensive active utility relocations while maintaining uninterrupted patient care, coordination with multiple campus projects and student activities in adjacent facilities, according to JE Dunn Construction’s website. The building features a modular skin system, which involved constructing the steel frame off site, shipping and erecting it on site, and then mounting prefabricated curtain wall panels.

The University of Kansas Hospital has seen patient volume grow 30 percent in the last five years, according to Page. Its fastest growing services — neurosciences and surgical oncology — have grown nearly 40 percent over that period.

The hospital receives no state or local tax appropriations since it became an independent state authority in 1998.

It was announced in 2014 that the project’s goal was to raise $100 million through philanthropy. So far, the effort has raised $36.6 million. That includes a $10 million challenge grant from philanthropist Annette Bloch. Bloch, president of R.A. Bloch Cancer Foundation in Kansas City, Mo., announced a dollar-for-dollar match on all gifts made to the Cambridge North Tower through June 2016. The funds will go toward cancer programs at the tower. The hospital reported it has raised nearly $4 million toward the challenge.

“We are doing much more than constructing a new building. We are building this hospital as we put Kansas City on the national medical map. Great cities have great academic hospitals. If we want Kansas City to be a top 10 city, we need this hospital, The University of Kansas Hospital — Kansas City’s great academic hospital — to be a top 10 hospital,” said Greg Graves, chairman and CEO of Burns & McDonnell, in a statement. Graves and his wife Deanna are leading the fundraising effort for Cambridge North.

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