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Providence Park progresses

Date Posted: February 2 2007

- Michigan's hospital construction boom has been relentless in recent years, with the St. John Providence Park Hospital campus a typical example.

The 500,000 square-foot, $224-million hospital will include 200 beds and a full emergency department designed as a Level 1 Trauma Center. The hospital and campus will also include new operating rooms, a dedicated pediatric unit, a fitness center, retail shops, a hotel and a wildlife trail.

Construction began in January 2006 and is scheduled for completion in July 2008. Between 220 and 250 Hardhats will work on the project at peak employment. The construction is being managed by the joint venture of Barton Malow-White.

David Martin, project director for Barton Malow, said the biggest "constructability" challenge so far has been working with the building's exterior panels. The glass segmented curtain wall is segmented, curved, and must be installed in sequence in an atypical counter-clockwise fashion from left to right.

"We had to decide on the sequence very early in the construction process, because the panels are being made in order," Martin said. "There has definitely been a learning curve on the installation; you have to pay a lot of attention to detail."

Gary Hatter, Barton Malow's general superintendent on the project, said the seven-story building will be dominated by a six-story atrium. He said the first two floors of the new hospital will include ambulatory/emergency care, radiology/MRI and surgical suites. "Compared to the rest of the building, the first two floors have a lot of complex utilities, and requires a great deal of coordination with the architect," Hatter said.

The new hospital at Grand River and Beck is being constructed near the existing 250,000 square-foot St. John Providence Park medical center, and the buildings will be connected via an enclosed walkway.

Once complete, the new campus will have about 300 physicians - double the current number at the medical center. When the new hospital is open and the hotel and retail operations are running, a total of 1,000 new employees will be brought to the campus.

"We've researched approaches to care across the country the last few years, looked at some innovative approaches, and picked what we think are the best ones," said Rob Casalou, president of St. John Providence Park Hospital to an health industry publication. "All the ideas will come together in this new hospital. Our care will be unique in that our patients will benefit from a collection of the latest thinking in healthcare."

Casalou told the Detroit News: "If you make a point, starting at Beck and Grand River and draw a seven mile radius, in that seven-mile area there were 70,000 admissions to hospitals last year and they went to 11 different hospitals," he said. That tells you why there is a need for this hospital."

The case for new hospitals - and their construction - is being made across Michigan, as more patient-friendly amenities are being designed into the new buildings.

GOING UP TO TAKE the measure of a plumbing fixture at theSt. John Providence Park Hospital is Frank Cousino of Plumbers Local 98 and Western Mechanical.
THE NEW $224 MILLION St. John Providence Providence Park hospital.