In Glendale, AZ, DPR is pushing forward to complete a major renovation and expansion project this summer for Vanguard Health Systems’ Arrowhead Hospital. The 160,000-sq.-ft. project, which nearly doubles the size of the original facility constructed in 1987, is designed to greatly increase capacity to meet the needs of the growing community.

Team Players
Client: Vanguard Health Systems
Architect: Gould Turner Group, P.C.
The expansion adds space on all four sides of the hospital, while also incorporating a new three-story inpatient tower. Designed by architect Gould Turner Group, P.C. of Nashville, TN, to blend into the existing facility, the new radius curtainwall tower creates a more distinctive presence on the campus. Also on the Arrowhead campus are three peripheral medical office buildings, one of which DPR completed for Vanguard in 2003.

The expanded facility includes 85 new hospital beds; an 18-bed intensive-care unit; five new operating rooms, including two cardiovascular rooms; a new pharmacy and a new clinical laboratory. The project also includes doubling the existing central plant, a new fully illuminated Federal Aviation Administration-certified helipad to replace the former helipad and a new 300-stall parking structure. The renovation portion of the project touches virtually every area of the existing facility and includes both major new and renovation work on the imaging, invasive and dining areas, among other things.

The project broke ground in July 2004 and is on track for an anticipated final completion this August, following a multi-phased turnover. DPR turned over more than 120,000 sq. ft. of the new addition earlier this year and is currently completing interior renovation work.

With the hospital remaining in full operation, the need to minimize the impact of construction on a daily basis and to maintain patient and user access and egress have been major challenges. In the delicate environment of an acute care medical facility, where lives often hang in the balance, there is little room for error. Flexibility and constant communication with the owner have been essential, according to DPR Project Manager Mark Whitson.

“In typical DPR fashion, we’ve worked in close collaboration with the owner to come up with the best solutions and to have as little impact as possible on a daily basis,” Whitson commented. To facilitate that needed flexibility, while enabling full operation of the facility, DPR broke the project into a total of 36 separate phases, ranging from a 1,000-sq.-ft. renovation, to one phase that encompassed 90,000 sq. ft. of new construction. The multi-phased approach has allowed crews to quickly switch to another area of work on short notice when hospital operations require minimal noise or other impacts to a surgery area on a given day. At any time, six or more phases of construction may be underway simultaneously.

The phasing has also helped facilitate the intricate tie-in of the newly expanded central plant systems to the original systems. To accomplish that with no disruption to service, the team built a temporary medical gas farm and then performed a series of switchovers in several phases.

“In a nutshell, I would rate the DPR team…as probably one of the best teams that I have had the privilege of ever working with,” said Vice President of Facilities & Real Estate for Abrazo Healthcare Mark Barkenbush. “They have focused on the client’s needs in a very collaborative fashion and in trying to make sure hospital operations are maintained while they are delivering this very complicated project.”

Another technical challenge was building around and on top of the existing Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) department, whose operations are highly sensitive to not only motion but to potential operational interferences resulting from construction materials such as structural steel being near the MRI equipment. To proactively address a possible disruption, a temporary mobile MRI unit was installed during that phase of the project.

“We’ve touched all four sides of the existing facility and expanded vertically,” added Barkenbush. “This was not an easy project. Throughout it, the team has been first rate in working around ongoing operations, contending with whatever issues there are and adjusting the schedule accordingly.”

In addition to a highly satisfied owner, another significant mark of the project’s success has been the strong safety record that has been maintained. To date, DPR has racked up approximately 105,000 DPR man-hours and 350,000 subcontractor man-hours on the job, with just two recordables each.

“We chose DPR for our complex expansion project because of their solid reputation and experience. Specifically, DPR’s excellent communication and planning, combined with their skill in efficient construction with minimal disruption, led to our partnership. Two years later, as our expansion and renovation is nearly complete, DPR has lived up to its reputation and delivered. Furthermore, the team responsible for Arrowhead’s project was very responsive, accommodating and extremely competent.”
Jon Bartlett,
Chief Executive Officer Arrowhead Hospital