Neuroplex at Barrow Neurological Institute
Phoenix, Arizona
Award of Merit, Health Care
Submitted By: Kitchell Contractors Inc.
Owner: CommonSpirit Health
Lead Design Firm: Devenney Group Ltd.
General Contractor: Kitchell Contractors Inc.
Civil: EPS Group
Structural: Buehler Engineering Inc.
MEP: WSP USA Buildings Inc.
Designed to re-envision the way neuroscience care is delivered, the $36.2-million medical building for the renowned Barrow Neurological Institute is located on the St. Joseph’s Hospital & Medical Center campus in Phoenix.
Scope of work included demolition of the existing building, sitework and creating connections to the existing hospital. Despite being constructed on a tight site at an active medical campus during a global pandemic, the design-build project was delivered on time and on budget in May 2021.
The 122,000 sq-ft, five-story facility opens up clinical care spaces so laboratory research for brain and spine diseases can expand 50%. The facility houses ENT/skull base surgery, an ambulatory surgery center, the pre-op clinic pre-admission center for neurosurgery, a neuro-infusion suite, and the neuro-oncology, stroke and neuro-endocrinology divisions.
In addition to the site constraints, the project was in a sensitive, highly congested area adjacent to the 24/7 emergency room, and three other construction sites were within a quarter of a mile. Nearly every facet of operations had to be protected from the disruptive effects of construction.
With these issues, an aggressive schedule and a COVID-19 shutdown, the team chose a unitized curtain wall system, which is much faster to install than traditional stick-built but requires four to six weeks per floor—a unitized system install is one to two weeks per floor.
Other time and money-saving solutions included keeping the existing transformers in place and maintaining the corridor connection between the demolished Steinegger Building and the Ancillary Building to serve as a first-floor connection between the new building and the existing hospital.
The new South Bridge connector provides direct access from the future Ambulatory Surgery Center to the existing hospital. Extensive laser scanning and underground field coordination allowed the team to connect to these locations with precision.
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