Wishard Hospital Construction
INDIANAPOLIS — When The New Wishard Hospital opens its doors to patients and the public near the end of 2013, the community will breathe easier knowing it can receive cutting-edge treatment in a $754 million green facility built by a diverse group of laborers, contractors and subcontractors.
The New Wishard will replace Wishard Hospital, a 353-bed facility that served more than 15,000 adult patients in 2008. The existing hospital suffers from an aging campus and outdated equipment and facilities not designed to handle the current patient load.
In constructing The New Wishard, developers made a commitment to both building green and employing minority workmen. Hospital officials announced earlier this year they are aiming for the USGBC’s LEED Silver rating in The New Wishard, which would make it the only green hospital of its kind in Indiana.
Additionally, The New Wishard’s operating firm, Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County, will hire a mix of 15.6 percent minority-owned, 8 percent women-owned and 3.2 percent veteran-owned businesses, as well as firms that don’t fall under those categories, to build the 1.2-million-square-foot hospital.
In March, Wishard officials awarded an initial bid package of $27.5 million to Indianapolis-based FA Wilhelm Construction Co. Inc. to construct a 2,400-car parking garage and site utilities. Bidding for the construction of the new hospital, an ambulatory care building and energy plant are expected to begin this spring and summer and be awarded this fall. Bidding for a proposed faculty and research building will begin in the fall 2011.
“We have received very favorable results in the bond market so far, as well as favorable material and construction costs — in part as a result of our considerable advanced planning and preparation — and we hope this will result in overall savings on the total cost,” says Todd Harper, spokesman for Wishard Hospital.
“However, just as market conditions created this advantage, changes in the market could affect future processes, so we are not calculating the current advantage as a savings on the total cost,” Harper says.
Situated on a 37-acre site near the western end of the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis campus, The New Wishard Hospital will be built on a location left vacant by the demolition of the Larue D. Carter Psychiatric Hospital. The new hospital will house 315 inpatient beds, 18 operating rooms, 12 labor and delivery rooms, a 90-bed treatment room emergency department, a 20-bed clinical decision unit, four interventional labs and more than 200 ambulatory clinic exam rooms.
Marion County voters approved construction of The New Wishard Hospital last November, when 85 percent of voters supported a measure to build the hospital. The project will create 4,400 jobs in the Indianapolis area.
“The New Wishard Hospital that the voters of Marion County overwhelmingly approved will be a beacon of health and wellness for Indianapolis,” says Matthew Gutwein, president and CEO of Health & Hospital Corporation. “Wishard is committed to exercising environmental stewardship so that Indianapolis becomes a more livable and sustainable city.”
The New Wishard’s green credits under the LEED system including reusing an old urban site and achieving savings through efficient water and energy systems.
“In reusing an old urban site, Wishard will avoid disturbing undeveloped land, farmland or wetlands,” says Harper. “The New Wishard will be located near residences, basic services and public transportation, minimizing related travel emissions, and plans call for the site to include bike racks, showers for employees and designated parking for alternative fuel vehicles and high-occupancy car pool and van pool vehicles.”
Other design elements, including green and white roofs, efficient plumbing fixtures, self-sustaining rainwater irrigation systems for landscaping and a native plant landscape, will contribute to a proposed energy optimization plan that will create at least a 14 percent energy savings, Harper says. The New Wishard will also utilize outside air delivery and ventilation systems and a hospital-wide recycling program to achieve greater sustainability.
The design team for The New Wishard Hospital includes A2SO4 Architecture of Indianapolis; Blackburn Architects of San Francisco; Circle Design Group of Indianapolis; international construction company Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum, and other engineering and architectural firms.