Desert flower

.Project Summary

Completion Date: Phased opening (January through June 2011)

Owner: Phoenix Children's Hospital

Architecture, Interior Design, and Structural

Engineering: HKS, Inc.

Construction Manager: Kitchell Contractors

Civil Engineering: Evans Kuhn & Associates

MEP Engineering: ccrd partners

Programming: Blue Cottage Consulting

Telecommunications: Sparling

Landscaping: Site Design Group/Talley Associates

Food Service Consulting: Systems Design International

Lighting Design: Scott Oldner Lighting Design
Photography: Blake Marvin/HKS, Inc. Total Building Area (sq. ft.): 770,000

Total Construction Cost: $270 million

Cost/Sq. Ft.: $340

As seen in the September 2003 issue of HEALTHCARE DESIGN, Phoenix Children's Hospital was remodeled and renovated in 2002. Featuring a design from Karlsberger Companies, the hospital was built upon the framework of a former adult general hospital campus, and successfully so—HEALTHCARE DESIGN even awarded the project a Citation of Merit in the 2003 Architectural Showcase. But even the best laid plans will only work for so long in an ever-expanding healthcare world. A few years later, a new campus master plan was established, incorporating new parking garages, a new central energy plant, and a new front door-the distinctive new patient tower, designed and executed by HKS, Inc. The tower, designed to emulate a night-blooming desert flower, is the cornerstone of the new campus plan, but far from the last step in its reinvention. HEALTHCARE DESIGN Editor-in-Chief Todd Hutlock spoke with three members of the HKS design team-Principal-in-Charge Jeffrey Stouffer, AIA; Senior Construction Administrator Sidney Smith, AIA; and Interior Designer Sandra Miller, IIDA, LEED AP-about this latest addition to a forward-thinking pediatric campus.

The master plan

Jeffrey Stouffer, AIA: This was a very complex project that required an integrated team to deliver it, and we had that integrated team from the inception. We set forth re-master planning the campus, and the master plan had some challenges in phasing. We quickly studied more than 12 options and came up with a solution to accomplish the project.

The first phase of the project was a new employee parking garage, followed by a replacement of the existing central energy plant for the whole campus, which we placed a half-block away and connected with a tunnel. From a patient-safety standpoint, we really wanted to keep all the large trucks out of the way of the children and their families.

This is not a replacement facility; the existing building will remain, although the master plan was designed so that the next expansion will allow for the existing hospital to be torn down eventually, but that will take a number of years.

In the original master plan, the ambulatory building and the bed tower were 1,000 feet apart. All we could think about were all of those families, mom and dad with a sick child and pushing a stroller with two other kids, walking 1,000 feet back and forth-and then there's the doctors and the supplies as well. We came up with the tower and tunnel plan and the relocation of the central utility plant to establish more efficient movement of the public, patients, materials, and staff.

Construction challenges

Sidney Smith, AIA: The tower basement through the third floor is complete and in control of the owner; we are currently finishing out the patient units, and there is also shelled space. The CEP and employee garage started around spring 2008 and they were completed in early 2009. The tower project broke ground in October 2008, so there was a little bit of overlap there.