Project Highlights

• 4-story vertical clinic building expansion, provisioned for an additional 12
  stories, new operating rooms, new cafeteria, load dock expansion
• Big room planning using lean construction process
• Integrated steel delivery

Overview

Four distinct areas make up this $126,000,000 expansion project: 1) a 4-story vertical expansion to the clinic, which is also provisioned for 12 additional future stories, 2) new operating rooms, 3) a new cafeteria, and 4) horizontal expansions at the loading dock, where MBJ was required to manage several complex building interactions. The loading dock was moved to the east, making room for a new basement and additional floors, while the floors above were designed to span over the new loading dock to ease the movement of trucks to and from the dock area. The operating room expansion required close coordination with the owner to meet stringent vibration criteria. Like the clinic addition, the cafeteria is also designed for future expansion.

Several project approaches were used to facilitate a more efficient design and construction process, starting with “big room” planning, using Lean project methods, where all stakeholders met in a proactive, face-to-face environment. With everyone in the same room, all project elements came together to form a larger picture, and challenges across all disciplines were identified and solved in the planning stages. Big room meetings have continued throughout the project, keeping it on track. As a result of the big room experience, MBJ was able to identify a key integrated steel delivery process that considerably shortened the schedule. MBJ, as Engineer of Record, coordinated with the steel fabricator and the led the process, using Tekla for in-model shop drawing review and optimized connection design. All these efforts measurably reduced the cost of the project.