A Shoehorn Job
By Neal Singer

Steve Adams, Albuquerque-based Jaynes Corp. project manager, has a tough job. His company is now at the early stages of a six-story, three-pronged, pin-wheel shaped addition to the largest public hospital in New Mexico.

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Adams and architect Marc Schiff of Albuquerque/Santa Fe-based Design Collaborative Southwest have already, on paper, saved client University of New Mexico Hospital millions of dollars and shortened the agreed-upon construction time for the project from seven to three years.

It's called the Children's Hospital and Critical Care Pavilion.
Schiff said that a well-thought out floor plan, imaginative decor and a 'healing garden' space - along with the hospital's first-rate staff and equipment - will make the UNM Hospital the place of choice for patients throughout multicultural New Mexico.

The $238 million project has union and nonunion workers, the result of a political deal worked out by the university. Each contractor can bring up to 20 non-union workers.

"Union labor adds value due to skill levels," Adams said. "It's a sensitive situation, but it's worked pretty smoothly so far."

And there's almost no workspace. The 456,000-sq.-ft. addition is bounded on the west by a parking structure and on the south by busy Lomas Boulevard and an existing telecom building that the project must wrap around. To the east is the emergency room entrance of the existing hospital, and immediately to the north is a cancer research center. A concrete run-off channel between that building and the addition will be covered over to create an entrance road.

The equipment staging site is a mile away.

Rob Rieves, a vice -president of Albuquerque-based McDade-Woodcock electrical contractor, said the work won't be easy on such a small site. "All hospitals are complex, with multiple systems," he added. " This work is on a tight schedule, on a congested project site and with high public traffic to the hospital's emergency room."

JB Henderson, an Albuquerque-based mechanical company, will build a second outside shell to protect the telecom building, Adams said. "Power and fiber optic utility lines go through there," he said.

A $1.1 million shoring system, as close as 7 ft. to Lomas Boulevard, will be installed to protect the lines. Workers will use 20-ft.-long piles, 15 ft. apart, with wood lagging between the piles.

"The mechanical equipment housed there has to remain active for some of the work," Adams said.

Difficulties also exist vertically. A helipad for the hospital's emergency transport is about 50 ft. overhead, far below the height that construction cranes will reach once construction begins in earnest.

"The copters will eventually have to reroute, and communications will be important," Adams said. A new heliport will be installed at 114 ft. atop the new addition by Heliport Systems, Inc. of Morristown, N.J.

Even with the difficulties, architect Schiff said he figured out "how to build the entire building in one phase, instead of the two it was originally designed in," and took four years off the expected construction life..

The project received notice to proceed on Oct. 13. It was given 913 construction days to lay 3,100 tons of steel and 18,000 yards of concrete and faces fines of $28,000 a day if late.

Adams, who will be working with JE Dunn of Kansas City, a much more experienced healthcare general contractor, said $1.5 million has already been saved by merely upgrading two existing elevators in the parking structure to high speed, rather than building two new elevators. His team also deleted a sidewalk snowmelt system.

"We didn't think it cost-effective in our climate at a few hundred thousand dollars," Adams added. "We proposed just throwing salt."
Schiff also changed the building's major orientation to east-west rather than north-south to take advantage of solar gain and provide "spectacular views of mountains and valleys." There is a protected northeast section for a healing garden.

The garden, with its switch-back-like paths, masks an 8-ft. eight-foot drop from east to west.

Amy Boule, administrator of UNM's Professional and Support Services, said DCSW's pinwheel design provides a central hub on each floor for patients to orient themselves, rather than endless straight corridors. She also likes the 18-ft. room ceiling height, which allows plenty of room for mechanicals.

Grady Cook, Marietta, Ga.-based president of Medical Equipment Supports, also likes the high ceilings. His job is to provide braces for equipment too heavy to attach directly to the hospital structure.

The rooms are big enough for family members to stay overnight with children - an important cultural nod to Navajos and other American Indians whose sense of family includes staying with their children rather than in motels.

The entire addition will demonstrate sensitivity to New Mexican traditions.

Winding blue rubber flooring will represents three New Mexico rivers, ceiling vigas will be visible in common areas, and hospital areas will be referred to by name (Turtle, Bear, Sky, and so on) rather than by number.

Schiff's team, including architects Shary Adams and David Riley, has designed comfortable areas for sick children, including a nurses' station shaped like a pirate ship and one that looks like a balloon gondola with lights resemble a balloon burner's flame.