McCarthy Building Cos. celebrated the topping out of the North Tower vertical expansion at Piedmont Cartersville Medical Center in Bartow County near Atlanta on March 27. The 43,122-sq-ft, two-floor vertical expansion to the existing three-story tower will house 20 beds for short stay patients at the hospital. The project also includes the renovation and 11,000-sq-ft expansion of the existing sterile processing department, which required close coordination and the use of a mobile sterilizing unit in order to keep the hospital’s sterile processing department 100% functional throughout construction. Piedmont Cartersville is one of 22 hospitals in the Piedmont Healthcare system serving the Atlanta region. McCarthy, which was awarded the Cartersville project in June 2022, has completed more than $50 million and 124,000 sq ft of projects for Piedmont in the past five years, including in Atlanta, Athens, Columbus, Newton and Rockdale.

Photo courtesy Ben Tanner Photography

The BayCare Hospital Wesley Chapel officially opened its doors March 7 in Wesley Chapel, Fla. Construction began in July 2020 on the six-story, almost 320,000-sq-ft medical tower and office building constructed by Robins & Morton and designed by architect HKS. It includes 86 beds, emergency department services, operating rooms, catheterization labs, an intensive care unit, diagnostic services and imaging. The facility, which completed construction in early 2023, is part of a $246-million investment by BayCare for residents in Pasco County.

Rendering courtesy Little Diversified Architectural Consulting

Construction is underway at The Thread in Rock Hill, S.C., the largest available adaptable reuse project in the Carolinas, according to Little Diversified Architectural Consulting. The firm, along with The Keith Corp., Springsteen Properties Inc. and Capitol Broadcasting Co., is tackling a 400,000-sq-ft effort to preserve the historic elements of the textile mill and warehouse built in 1946 while adding modern, tenant-focused enhancements. The Thread is located in Rock Hill’s Knowledge Park district, on a site with history stretching back to buggy manufacturing and a textile mill that employed more than 5,000, says Robert Oppenheimer, senior project architect at Little. When completed, the more than $100-million investment will deliver a mix of roughly 170,000-sq-ft Class A creative office space, loft apartments and 30,000 sq ft of ground-floor retail. Phase 1 construction began in January, and Phase 2 will include almost 200,000 sq ft of one-, two- and three-bedroom loft apartments, with tenant upfits beginning in fall 2023.

Engineering and technical services firm Salas O’Brien has merged with Epsten Group, a sustainable design, consulting and commissioning service firm, according to a March 1 announcement that says the merger will allow the firms to pursue sustainable solutions for the built environment. Salas O’Brien ranked 87th in ENR Southeast’s 2022 Top Design Firms ranking. According to the announcement, the merger creates shared value with broader in-house expertise and enhances opportunities for employee ownership. The merger closed Feb. 1. The Epsten team will continue to be managed by its current leadership and adopt the O’Brien name, expanding the firm’s presence to more than 65 North American offices with more than 2,050 employees.