New St. Jude Tower Completed Ahead of Schedule

FULLERTON, Calif. — A new $228 million health care facility that opened last month in Fullerton was completed five months early and more than 10 percent under the original construction budget.

The design-build team of Petra Integrated Construction Strategies (Petra ICS), based in La Palma, Calif.; Taylor Design, based in Fitch Irvine, Calif.; and St. Louis-based McCarthy, attributes the fast and efficient process to collaborative delivery and progressive construction technology.

Located on the northern side of the St. Jude Medical Center campus, the St. Jude Medical Center Northwest Tower replaces an existing tower. The four-story, 200,000-square-foot acute care building offers 120 beds and 14 operating rooms that feature minimally invasive and robotic surgeries.

“Two primary uses with different requirements are components of the Northwest Tower addition. These include technologically cutting-edge surgical suites as well as spaces for patient care, healing and recovery,” said Neal Rinella, Taylor Design’s principal-in-charge, in a statement.

The project also included a 14,000-square-foot central utility plant and a new bridge to connect the tower’s fourth floor to the hospital.

Seven months of major construction work took place before building the new tower. Crews had to perform utility work and tear down an existing medical records building and parking garage. Construction efforts also included new surface parking and street improvements. In collaboration with International Parking Design of Irvine, Calif., McCarthy added 215 parking spaces to an existing 455-car parking structure that was built in 2004.

“The Northwest Tower displays design function, as well as incorporates evidence-based strategies for patient services to reduce stress, length of stay and enhance communication between caregivers and patients. These strategies not only provide an optimal care environment for healing, but also support St. Jude Medical Center’s commitment to patient dignity, the human spirit and creating healthy communities,” Rinella said in a statement.

To meet the challenging demands of the project, the construction and design team used virtual construction and design technology. For example, building information modeling (BIM) 3D, 4D and 5D were used to tie the model to constructability, cost and schedule. This form of delivery approach and technology helped to decrease the total project cost by 10 percent and helped complete the project under the original budget. The project team was also able to complete construction in five months.

Other technological features help with the patient experience, including computers for medical use in every patient room and advanced information systems allowing immediate clinical collaboration.

There is also a neurosurgery suite with an intra-operative MRI integrated with systems from BrainLab, a German medical technology company. Additionally, the tower features a cardiovascular hybrid room with a robotic C-arm, a cardiovascular suite, dedicated orthopedic rooms and integrated general surgery suites.

“Our team has worked together on other projects, but this has been the most collaborative design and construction effort that Petra ICS/St. Joseph Health System has achieved over the duration of our existence,” said Jim Bostic, vice president of operations for Petra ICS, in a statement. “It is a model project for best practices in the use of virtual design and construction and the implementation of the design to construction process.”