“The celebration today is a testament to the excellent job of the project team in delivering a top-notch facility ahead of schedule,” said Stephen Powell, consultant for project manager CBRE Healthcare at the ceremony. “For a project in northeast Ohio to be able to say we made it through this past winter two weeks ahead of schedule, and still beat cost targets, is a testament to the process and team we have in place.”

“It is so great to see the building take shape on our campus after all the months we spent planning it,” said Grace Wakulchik, chief operating officer at Akron Children’s Hospital. “Everything about the building is so well thought out and it is all about providing the best care to our patients and their families.”

One of the largest pediatric hospitals in the country, the Akron Children’s Hospital manages more than 700,000 patient visits annually. Upon completion, the $200 million, seven-story addition will house the hospital’s new emergency department, as well as an outpatient surgery center. A 100-bed neonatal intensive care unit and new labor units will also be added to provide additional care for those with high-risk pregnancies. Crews will connect the new addition to the existing facility February 2015, and the structure will welcome its first patients later that spring.

HSK Architects and Hasenstab Architects worked jointly to design the new facility, which is being constructed by the Boldt Company and Welty Building Company. The project team also includes civil engineer Environmental Design Group, MEP engineers CCRD and BWK, and structural engineer Thorson Baker. Mitchell and Dynamix Engineering will provide medical equipment and technology respectively.

To deliver the facility in an efficient manner, the design and construction team used an integrated project delivery method that involved the entire team from onset of the project. This method also allowed the building’s future users to provide input during the design process. Hospital staff and patient families were even invited to weigh in on potential furnishings for the new facility to select the most comfortable and functional options.

Two hundred past and current patients were also integrated into the addition’s design through the hospital’s Graffiti Project. This project honored patients, who were nominated by the hospital community, by spray-painting their names on the facility’s concrete slabs. As construction progresses, the names will be covered by the building’s exterior but will remain with the structure.

"As Akron Children’s grows to meet the current and future needs of children and their families, it was important to us to keep our patients at the heart of it all," said Gretchen Jones, director of principal giving for the Akron Children’s Hospital Foundation. "Our patients’ names will forever be a part of our new building and they will continue to inspire us as we serve them and other families."

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Events of the day included a celebration for the hospital’s 120 years of history and care. Highlights of the ceremony included speeches by hospital leaders, elected officials and a parent highly involved in the new building’s design. Attendees were given refreshments and opportunities for photos. The Akron Children’s Doggie Brigade made an appearance as well, as did Air Bear, Ohio’s first medical transport helicopter dedicated to pediatrics.

The critical care tower, which will be located near Locust and Exchange streets, is part of the Building on the Promise project. This $200 million endeavor will focus on transforming the hospital’s campus. The tower will house several critical care departments, including a neonatal intensive care unit, an emergency department, an ambulatory surgery center and several rooms for other hospital programs.

The goal of the tower construction project is to create more efficient care processes and make better use of space in order to increase the quality of patient outcomes. The flexibility of the space will foster the hospital’s future growth as it continues its tradition of excellent family care.

Grace Wakulchik, the hospital’s COO, stated that the flexibility built into the tower’s design will prepare the hospital for potential changes in the future. The neonatal intensive care units are being designed so they can be converted to pediatric intensive care units or general patient rooms if necessary.

Akron Children’s Hospital has been dedicated to community involvement from the beginning of the project as well. Hospital officials brought parents in to discuss various elements of design as the tower plan was being developed. Numerous obstacles were circumvented before construction on the project even began as parents raised questions with project managers.

The high level of cooperation between the community and hospital employees was evident in the design workshops held in a local warehouse. The donated warehouse space was used as a makeshift foundation upon which a life-size cardboard model of the tower was constructed. Hospital employees and families were able to walk through the model and test the layout of the space before design plans were executed.

Boldt Construction developed this method of testing out proposed design plans. This process — Integrated Lean Project Delivery (ILPD) — not only narrowed the margin of error and allowed any necessary changes to be made prior to the beginning of construction, but also provided an opportunity for community members to bond with employees at the hospital.

KLMK Group, the onsite project manager, is eager to get involved with the project as well. Bill McMahon, president and COO, said in a recent press release, “We are extremely excited about the groundbreaking of the new critical care tower. This facility will enhance the quality of care that Akron Children’s provides and we are honored to be a part of the process.”

The new tower will be a 368,735-square-foot structure standing seven stories tall, and is expected to open in 2015.
 

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