Innovation in Medical Center Construction

Owner:
Oakwood Southshore Medical Center
Market:
Location:
Trenton, Michigan
Size:
213,000 square feet
Architect:
Hobbs+Black Architects
Services:
Design-Build

Walbridge and its design-build partner, Hobbs+Black, constructed a new six-floor, 191,000-square-foot, 108-bed tower between two existing buildings at Oakwood Southshore Medical Center in Trenton, Mich. The team then renovated a vacated emergency room and admitting area, turning it into a state-of-the-art diagnostic imaging suite. The construction cost for the entire makeover was $56 million.

Utilizing the Power of BIM: Reducing Waste and Increasing Efficiency

Through a unique integrated project delivery method, the design-build team provided Oakwood with a menu of options and associated costs throughout the design process. Included, were implications of how particular choices would affect specific floors, hospital operations, amenity packages, pricing and constructability. Some members of the team would also be utilizing three-dimensional Building Information Modeling (BIM) for the first time. For the project team, BIM delivered consistently – yielding both time and critical cost savings.

Today, Oakwood Southshore boasts a new tower addition, new hospital entrance and emergency center, new surgery department with five operating rooms, more private patient rooms, a larger radiology department, and a new auditorium for its medical education program.

Delivering on Expectations With Surgical Precision

Since the new hospital addition was being designed on-the-go, Walbridge had to provide a guaranteed end date and maximum price from the start. This minimized Oakwood’s risk, but it placed significant pressure on Walbridge to hit the price point exactly and come through with a brand-new facility in the shortest amount of time possible.

At the same time, the people element wasn’t ignored. The project team worked closely with hospital administrators and staff to make sure issues were addressed and dealt with in a timely manner.

“Mike and his crew are like our family,” said Edith Hughes, who retired as President of Oakwood Southshore Medical Center in 2016. She called the relationship with the Walbridge team “wonderful,” and said, “That’s not a normal experience that I’ve had with a construction company when I’ve done projects in other places.”