Banner-University Medical Center One Step Closer to Completion

TUCSON, Ariz. — The Banner-University Medical Center (UMC) in Tucson celebrated the topping out of its new hospital tower on Jan. 18. The celebration had UMC staff, Tucson community members and the construction crew in attendance, while they witnessed construction workers hoisting the final beam of the future medical tower.

The architects on the project are Shepley Bulfinch in Phoenix and GLHN Architects & Engineers in Tucson. The construction contractor was a joint venture (Sundt|DPR, A Joint Venture) between Sundt Construction in Tucson and DPR Construction located in Phoenix. This was the seventh joint venture partnership for Sundt and DPR Construction. The whole team broke ground on the tower in May 2016, according to a recent statement, while completion is currently slated for 2019.

The budget for this 670,000-square-foot project and renovations on the existing 75,000-square-foot facility is $400 million, with $50 million of that going to new patient care equipment and computers for state-of-the-art care. The new tower will be nine stories tall, and will have a new main entryway, new cafeteria and support departments on the first floor, according to a statement.

There will be new diagnostic imaging, diagnostic cardiology, cardiac cath labs and interventional radiology on the second floor. The tower will also include new operating rooms and patient prep and recovery space on the third floor, 204 new patient rooms on floors five through nine, and women and infant services on the fifth floor, with more medical and surgical and ICU beds on floors six through eight. The ninth floor will have more medical and surgical beds in addition to 24 more patient rooms.

The placement of this final piece of the tower marks that the uppermost structural framing of the new tower is ready to be set and that the structure has reached its maximum height. While the new tower is currently in its metal “skeleton” form of what it will eventually become, it is scheduled to open for services in spring 2019.