Notice to proceed was issued in late May and the project is expected to be complete in 2016. The 1.1 million-square-foot healthcare campus will replace the existing William Beaumont Army Medical Center. The project will consist of a seven-story hospital, two clinic buildings, administrative building, clinical investigation building with biosafety level three laboratories, and central utility plant. In addition to constructing the campus’ structures, Clark/McCarthy also will construct two access control points and surface parking.

“Our team is honored to build this world-class healthcare facility serving our soldiers and their families,” commented McCarthy Texas Regional President Mike McWay. “Our team brings significant capabilities and an unmatched excellence in healthcare. We are excited to get started.”

The 630,000-square-foot replacement hospital building will be comprised of a moment-resistant steel frame structure with a SidePlate® connection system and a concrete and metal deck composite floor system. These systems also will be used in constructing the clinic facilities and will help the buildings withstand the effects of seismic activity. Each of the new buildings’ curtain wall systems will be equipped with integral sunshade devices and structures also will feature natural stone and metal façade panels combined with a terra-cotta rain screen system.The Fort Bliss healthcare campus is designed to achieve LEED® Silver certification, and the hospital and clinic buildings are designed to achieve LEED for Healthcare certification. The project team will incorporate sustainable elements into the campus, including water-efficient landscaping, water-use reduction fixtures, and other energy-efficient design features.

The Fort Bliss healthcare campus is designed to achieve LEED® Silver certification, and the hospital and clinic buildings are designed to achieve LEED for Healthcare certification. The project team will incorporate sustainable elements into the campus, including water-efficient landscaping, water-use reduction fixtures, and other energy-efficient design features.

HDR, Inc., of Alexandria, Va., is the project architect.

This is the sixth significant healthcare collaboration effort for the Clark/McCarthy team. The two companies are currently building the Replacement Naval Hospital at Camp Pendleton, the New Stanford Hospital in California, and Project Legacy, the Southeast Louisiana Veteran’s Health Care System Replacement Medical Center in New Orleans.

About McCarthy
McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is the nation’s eighth largest domestic general contractor (Engineering News-Record, May 2013) has been ranked among the premier national healthcare builders by Modern Healthcare since the magazine began its annual ranking more than 30 years ago. In addition to Dallas, McCarthy has offices in Houston; Sacramento, San Francisco, San Diego and Newport Beach, Calif.; Phoenix; Las Vegas; Albuquerque; St. Louis; Collinsville Ill.; Kansas City and Atlanta. McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned. More information is available at www.mccarthy.com. Follow McCarthy on Twitter and Facebook.

FEATURE ARTICLES in this edition include:

Design Build: The Owner’s Role in Successful Outcomes
The Design (Pre-shovel) Phase
by Jim Mynott, McCarthy Vice President, Design Management

To get the best results on a design-build project, the owner’s role is as important as that of the design-builder. Read more to discover six areas where an owner’s early involvement is critical to realize ultimate success.

Achieving Effective Operation of Your Systems
by Chad Dorgan, McCarthy Vice President, Quality and Sustainability

The focus during final project turnover is often on operations and maintenance documentation and training of an owner’s personnel. Read more to learn about the key activities owners, designers and contractors need to take to ensure a smooth, effective transition.

See the WINTER 2013 EDITION

Readers can also view region-specific content by selecting from the drop down menu titled View Other Editions. These include Central, Nevada/Utah, Southern California, Northern Pacific, Southwest, Southeast and Texas.

The new facility will expand the campus as well as the educational opportunities available to students. The project consists of two new buildings totaling 55,655 square feet. It will house MetWest High School and Yuk Yau and Centro Infantil Child Development Centers, and will include a town hall space, math classrooms and a media arts lab.

Construction on phase two of the La Escuelita Education Center broke ground in 2012 and is scheduled for completion in 2014.The project will be Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) Certified and aims to achieve “Grid Neutral” status with the addition of photovoltaic panels, bioswales, rain harvesting systems and cooling towers that mist cool air into common areas with minimal use of energy.

“Through innovative construction and project management techniques, we have been able to minimize the impact of the building process on the current campus and to create a sustainable campus for the District,” said McCarthy Project Director Doug Barrows. “This project will not only give students an engaging learning environment, but also provide the local community with a space of which they can be proud.”

McCarthy has worked for OUSD for more than 12 years, serving as its Construction and Program Manager for the first ten. This is the first project for OUSD where McCarthy is general contractor. As part of a joint-venture with a small local business, Turner Group Construction, McCarthy is helping to support the local community with a target 60+ percent local business participation rate on the project.

“We are excited to work with the District and the project team on such an important project for the community. Our partnership with McCarthy, coupled with their longstanding relationship with the client, has helped us to seamlessly work together and we are pleased to share such an important milestone,” said Turner Group Construction general manager, Len Turner.

About McCarthy
With nearly 150 years of experience, McCarthy is one of the nation’s oldest, privately held construction firms. Committed to the construction of high performance buildings, the company provides general contracting, construction management, program management and design/build services for healthcare, educational, parking structure, entertainment, retail, laboratory, biotechnical, microelectronic, and industrial facilities; office buildings; tenant interiors; mixed-use; multifamily residential and bridges and highways. In addition to Sacramento and San Francisco, McCarthy has offices in Newport Beach and San Diego, Calif.; Phoenix; Albuquerque; Las Vegas; Dallas; Houston; St. Louis; Collinsville, Ill.; Kansas City and Atlanta. McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned. Visit the company’s website at www.mccarthy.com and follow on Facebook at www.facebook.com/mccarthybuilding.

Each year, McCarthy’s Heart Hats seek recipients of its annual financial grant(s) and a construction project where McCarthy employees and families can assist a Valley charity with an improvement project using their expertise as builders. Eligible 501(c)3 non-profit organizations must support children and families experiencing dramatic economic needs within the Greater Metropolitan Phoenix area. Organizations are invited to apply for one or both of the opportunities.

Last year, UMOM New Days Centers’ Next Step Housing was selected as recipient of the hands-on community building project. Heart Hats volunteers built a new playground for the charity’s housing project located in downtown Phoenix over two weekends. The 2012 grant recipients were Children’s Cancer Network and Starbright Foundation, each of which received a $20,000 grant.    

Applications for grants and/or the hands-on community building project, along with a complete list of criteria for each type of submission, can be found in the upper right-hand corner of this page: mccarthy.com/locations/phoenix

The McCarthy Heart Hats community outreach program ensures real community needs are being met through hands-on activities and financial support. Last year alone, more than $1 million in financial support, in-kind and hands-on building contributions were made through McCarthy’s Heart Hats program nationwide.

“Our employees strive to find ways to have a positive impact on our community. The grants and hands-on construction project allow us to support organizations that specialize in providing critical services to children and families in need,” said Bo Calbert, president of McCarthy’s Southwest Region. “We feel privileged to be able to offer assistance to organizations that are filling these needs in our community.”

For questions regarding the grant application, contact Michelle Dionne.

About McCarthy Building Companies
The McCarthy Heart Hats community involvement program is dedicated to encouraging, supporting and recognizing McCarthy employees’ volunteer efforts in a variety of causes to ensure real needs are being met in communities where employees live and work. McCarthy employees are as passionate about building better communities as they are about construction. In addition to recognizing outstanding employee volunteers and providing a company-wide paid volunteer day, McCarthy Heart Hats volunteers donate countless hours of in-kind services and monetary contributions to improve communities each year. Founded in 1864, McCarthy is the nation’s 8th largest domestic builder (Engineering News-Record, May 2012). The McCarthy Southwest Division is based in Phoenix. McCarthy also has offices in Newport Beach, San Diego, Sacramento and San Francisco, Calif.; Las Vegas; Albuquerque; Dallas and Houston, Texas; St. Louis and Atlanta. McCarthy is 100 percent employee-owned. More information about the company is available at mccarthy.com.

The Balfour Beatty | McCarthy team is providing design-build services for the 947,000-square-foot project, which will replace the existing Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center and provide a new, state-of-the-art healthcare facility for service members and their families. The design-build process is greatly benefiting the project, saving time and money due to increased efficiency, removing at least two years from the construction timeline.

“We are excited to celebrate this project milestone with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and our other project partners. We look forward to completing this highly sophisticated facility that will provide top-tier healthcare services to active duty soldiers, veterans and their families as well as the surrounding community of Fort Hood,” said Michael J. McWay, president of McCarthy’s Texas Division and chairman of the Balfour Beatty | McCarthy Management Committee. “The design-build process, in conjunction with our decades of experience in the healthcare industry, has enabled the team to build a coordinated, high-quality facility that meets the government’s budget and schedule.”

“The Balfour McCarthy/HKS design build team has worked diligently to reach this important milestone. We are proud to be part of this collaborative team and honored to build this world-class facility for the service men and women and their families who sacrifice so much for our country,” stated Doug Jones, regional CEO for Balfour Beatty Construction.

“None of this could take place if not for the extraordinary efforts by a dedicated and talented team. This team has combined to create a level of synergy that is difficult to match,” added  Colonel Charles Klinge, commander, Fort Worth District, USACE. “This team has also consistently provided a realistic level of workmanship throughout all phases of procurement, fabrication, construction and installation of equipment and facilities.”

The topping out event signifies completion of the highest elevation point of construction. The project’s onsite building team joined members of USACE, HFPA, MEDCOM and more than 800 workers to sign the last beam to be put in place, inscribed with the words “Build Strong. Army Strong.” The beam was hoisted into place during the ceremony, and as it was lifted into the air, the audience shouted, “I am safety!”

The project sits on a 72-acre site and will include a six-story hospital tower, two two-story outpatient clinics, one three-story outpatient specialty clinic, ambulance garage, logistics building, central utility plant and three parking structures. Darnall serves roughly 45,000 active duty personnel and nearly 125,000 military family members and retirees within a 40-mile radius. More babies are born at Darnall than any other DOD facility. Darnall has been active in the treatment of soldiers and their families during the Global War on terror. This new facility will serve America’s soldiers of the 21^st century in a world-class hospital. Darnall is being designed and constructed with a goal of maximum flexibility to keep pace with the community’s increased healthcare needs. Due to the hospital’s forward-thinking design and construction, another two floors can be added at a later time, if needed. The choice of the concrete structural system allows for longer bays, which will allow for greater ease of adoption to future changes in healthcare technology.

The installation of interstitial space also serves to make future expansions more streamlined and seamless. Mechanical, electrical, plumbing (MEP) systems are housed between the regular-use floors so improvements and changes can be made without disturbing patients and staff in the floors above and below. As a result, hospital suites and other spaces can be easily renovated without affecting MEP systems, yielding a reduced lifecycle cost.

The project also saved time and costs through the use of insulated precast panels in the façade. When the panels are erected, the façade will be complete – the brick is already cast into the panels, which cuts down on the time of enclosure.

The use of state-of-the-art technology has also translated into cost savings for the project. The Balfour Beatty | McCarthy team has maximized the use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) tools and mobile apps in the field, including AutoDesk BIM 360 Field and prefabrication techniques to help facilitate collaboration and coordination of all project aspects during design and construction while improving decision-making and expediting progress.

The new medical center was designed to meet USGBC LEED® Gold certification requirements. Key sustainable measures include more than 30 percent reduction in energy use over ASHRAE Standard 90.1; utility use reduction of 55 percent over the existing hospital due in part to daylighting and a green, planted roof; 50 percent water reduction for irrigation use due to drought-tolerant landscaping; and 30 percent decrease in water usage for plumbing systems with high-pressure low-flow plumbing fixtures. In addition, the new facility will utilize a 100 percent dedicated outside air system, which will improve overall indoor air quality and eliminate recirculation of air within patient care areas. Other green features include Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified wood used on all of the doors and millwork, power metering, recycled construction materials and low-volatile organic compound paints, adhesives and sealants.

Construction is scheduled for completion in July 2014, with operations set to start in summer 2015.

About Balfour Beatty | McCarthy
Balfour Beatty | McCarthy is a joint venture of Balfour Beatty Construction and McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. formed to provide design-build services for the Fort Hood Replacement Hospital project. The team includes HKS Architects and Wingler & Sharp as design partners and Southland Industries/M.C. Dean for MEP services. Altogether, the firms have designed and/or built more than 2,000 healthcare projects nationwide with a combined value exceeding $25 billion. Moreover, team members have worked on 10 out of the top 19 medical centers on the 2008 Best Hospitals Honor Roll, as established by U.S. News and World Report.

Parties interested in getting involved with the project, should visit the team website.

“My first project with McCarthy 27 years ago was in Kansas City, and I’ve always wanted to go back,” said McCarthy Central Division President Scott Wittkop. “We have been planning for a Kansas City area office for some time. With several significant projects currently underway in the area, we feel that now is the right time to commit to a full service office with focus on our core markets of healthcare, education, science & technology and commercial construction.”

Modern Healthcare recently named McCarthy the largest healthcare general contractor in America in its Construction & Design Survey published in March. While McCarthy has ongoing healthcare projects in Omaha, Neb. and Springfield and Joplin, Mo., McCarthy’s most high-profile project in the region is the construction of the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) in Manhattan, Kan. for the Department of Homeland Security.

McCarthy, in conjunction with Minneapolis-based Mortenson Construction recently started work on the $80 million, 87,000-square-foot, free-standing central utility plant that will house the primary heating and cooling systems for the adjacent laboratory. Construction of the utility plant will be completed in October of 2015 with construction of the lab scheduled to begin in 2014.

Another nearby prominent project is the MARS Chocolate North America (MCNA) Project Sweetness, a $180 million, 550,000-square-foot, food-grade production and manufacturing facility in Topeka, Kan. Upon completion in 2014, the 150-acre site will be home to seven structures, including production, administration, central utilities, rail buildings, guard house and wastewater treatment plant.

“The primary focus of our new office is to better serve our current client base in preconstruction and construction services while building and strengthening relationships with other contractors and subcontractors in western Missouri and Kansas and be better positioned to respond to new requests for services,” said Wittkop.  “We believe this new office will allow us to be more responsive to customer’s needs in the greater Kansas City area.”

McCarthy’s new Kansas City office, located at 10601 Mission Road in Leawood, Kan., will be open for business in May. McCarthy’s Barry Sutherland has relocated to the area to lead the 3,500-square-foot office as Director, including Business Development responsibilities. McCarthy’s Brad Schoen will serve as Preconstruction Director.  The office opens with four full time McCarthy staff with future growth expected.  The office is supported by McCarthy’s Central Division out of St. Louis. 

About McCarthy
McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is one of the nation’s oldest and largest commercial construction companies. Founded in 1864, the firm is currently the 8^th largest builder in America (Engineering News-Record, May 2012) and has been building in the science and technology market for more than 50 years. Modern Healthcare has ranked McCarthy the largest healthcare general contractor (March 2013).  This resume of experience includes: healthcare and research facilities; life sciences; nanotechnology; pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical processing; data centers; high containment labs (BSL-3, BSL-4 and Potent Compound); cleanrooms; agri-business; and biomedical facilities. Headquartered in St. Louis, McCarthy also has offices in Leawood, Kan., Atlanta, Collinsville, Ill., Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Las Vegas, San Diego, Newport Beach, San Francisco and Sacramento. McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned. For more information visit http://www.mccarthy.com/.

“Considering the limited site availability and the desired efficiency in land use and operations, the new parking structure is being built to serve our new North American Corporate Campus, which will house key operations that require a large amount of personnel and its inherent amenities for Hyundai Motor’s operations within the U.S.,” said Harry Kim, senior manager for Hyundai AMCO America, Inc. “Our project required a strong parking structure team, allowing us to concentrate on construction of our new office building.  McCarthy’s design-build expertise, ability to self-perform the concrete work and commitment in meeting the fast-track schedule has been instrumental in meeting this need.”

The 502,589-square-foot project includes construction of a five-level parking structure with 1,533 car spaces, three bays and a ground level car wash. Designed by International Parking Design with aesthetic input from Gensler & Associates, the structure will boast a modern façade with painted cast-in-place concrete elements and decorative reveals set into the concrete exterior. Two free-standing elevator and stair towers feature decorative metal panel walls with ornamental metal panel canopies as well as full-height glass curtain walls and glass-backed observation elevator cabs.

Jerod Plante, McCarthy’s project manager, says working on a shared jobsite with another general contractor requires careful collaboration and planning.

“McCarthy has spent a lot of time pre-planning work activities and coordinating with the various entities to help ensure the success of both projects,” says Plante.

Besides a compact, shared site, McCarthy is working on a fast-track construction schedule aimed at completing the structure by summer. To expedite the schedule, McCarthy is self-performing the concrete and has instituted an aggressive deck pour cycle.

“In order to meet the tight schedule, we are conducting a three day deck cycle,” says Plante, adding that each of the 24 decks to be poured will contain approximately 400 cubic-yards of concrete.

Another large concrete element on the project is its extra thick, post-tensioned slab-on-grade, which Plante says posed an interesting challenge during the forming process.

“A typical parking structure requires mild reinforcing and a 5-inch slab,” explained Plante. “Because of unstable, existing soil conditions, we are pouring a 9-inch slab with post-tensioned cables.” He says post-tensioned cables allow for greater spans and reinforcing without intermediate supports. 

“In this instance, the slab-on-grade almost acts like a supported slab above.  It is self-supported, or in another words it doesn’t rely upon the soils beneath it for support,” says Plante. “Typically, post-tensioned slab-on-grade is used for small areas such as driveways or tennis courts.”

For underground stability to the tower, McCarthy installed more than 400 precast foundation piles drilled to depths of 70 feet.

The parking structure, which began construction in September 2012, is scheduled for completion this August. When finished, McCarthy will have self-performed more than 45,000 man-hours in work (not including supervision or subcontractor hours) while placing  approximately 20,000 cubic-yards of concrete.

About McCarthy
Recognized as one of the nation’s few true builders, McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is the largest general building contractor in California (ENR California, July 2012) and has been one of the nation’s leading parking structure builders since the advent of the modern parking structure in the 1960s. The company has delivered nearly 400 parking facilities throughout the United States, with parking spaces for more than 70,000 cars in California alone.  McCarthy is committed to the construction of high performance green buildings; progressive job site technology; and safer, faster and more cost-effective execution. In addition to Newport Beach, McCarthy has offices in San Diego, Sacramento and San Francisco, Calif.; Phoenix; Las Vegas; St. Louis; Collinsville, Ill.; Dallas; Houston and Atlanta. McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned.  More information about the company is available online at www.mccarthy.com .

McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. has been recognized as a Platinum-Level Fit-Friendly Worksite by the American Heart Association (AHA) for helping employees eat better and move more. This award will be presented during the Metro St. Louis Heart Walk this weekend at Busch Stadium.

“Physical activity and employee wellness are important priorities at McCarthy, and we are honored and excited to be recognized again by the American Heart Association as a Platinum-Level Fit-Friendly Worksite,” said Derek Glanvill, McCarthy president and chief operating officer. “As an employee-owned company, we’re committed to providing the best workplace possible. This will benefit our employees’ health, the health of family members and ultimately produce even more positive results for our company overall.”

The Fit-Friendly Worksites program is a catalyst for positive change in the American workforce, helping make employee health and wellness a priority. Platinum-level employers:

• Offer employees physical activity options in the workplace
• Increase healthy eating options at the worksite
• Promote a wellness culture in the workplace
• Implement at least nine criteria outlined by the American Heart Association in the areas of physical activity, nutrition and culture
• Demonstrate measurable outcomes related to workplace wellness

At McCarthy, safety has always been a core tenet of the company’s mission. In 2010, McCarthy extended this effort to include the overall health and wellness of employees with the launch of McCarthy Build for Life. This comprehensive wellness program is designed to encourage all McCarthy employees and their families to strive toward optimal mental, physical, emotional and financial well-being. The program focuses on four key areas: Awareness, Prevention, Activity, and Lifestyle & Stress.

In 2012, McCarthy partnered with a wellness vendor, Vitality, to provide an interactive and personalized program taking into account an individual’s overall health, lifestyle and risk factors, working with the individual to establish and achieve personal wellness goals, and finally motivating them with cost-savings on insurance premiums and other rewards along the way. Since the launch of this new wellness rewards program, McCarthy has seen overall participation in Build for Life rise to 87.4% through March 2013. In April, McCarthy launched its “Gold Rush Challenge,” an annual wellness challenge to encourage employee participation in the Build for Life program. The challenge runs through the end of May, with employees and spouses eligible to participate.

American employers are losing an estimated $225.8 billion a year because of healthcare expenses and health-related losses in productivity, and those numbers are rising. Many American adults spend most of their waking hours at sedentary jobs. Their lack of regular physical activity raises their risk for a host of medical problems, such as obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes. Employers face $12.7 billion in annual medical expenses due to obesity alone. The American Heart Association is working to change corporate cultures by motivating employees to start walking, which has the lowest dropout rate of any physical activity.

“The Fit-Friendly Worksites Program offers a unique, easy-to-implement opportunity for corporations to increase employees’ physical activity, which will help improve their health – and their employers’ bottom line,” said Tracy Brazelton, AHA executive director in St. Louis. “Even people who haven’t exercised regularly until middle age can reap significant benefits by starting a walking program. A study published in 1986 in the New England Journal of Medicine found that some adults may gain two hours of life expectancy for every hour of regular, vigorous exercise they performed.”

For more information about the Fit-Friendly Worksites program and how it is helping to improve the health of Americans by focusing on an activity that is convenient, free and easy, visit http://www.startwalkingnow.org/.

About the American Heart Association
The American Heart Association (AHA) is devoted to saving people from heart disease and stroke – America’s No. 1 and No. 4 killers. AHA teams with millions of volunteers to fund innovative research, fight for stronger public health policies, and provide lifesaving tools and information to prevent and treat these diseases. The Dallas-based association is the nation’s oldest and largest voluntary organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke. To learn more or join the effort, call 1-800-AHA-USA1 or any offices around the country, or visit www.heart.org.

About McCarthy
McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is one of the oldest and largest commercial construction companies in America. A true builder, McCarthy is committed to the construction of high performance green buildings; progressive job site technology; and safer, faster and more cost-effective execution. Repeatedly honored as a Best Place to Work and a Healthiest Employer, McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned. The firm has full-service offices in Atlanta, Albuquerque, Collinsville, Ill., Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Newport Beach, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco and St. Louis. More information about the company is available online at www.mccarthy.com.

The new facility will be located on the Stanford University Medical Center (SUMC) campus, adjacent to the site of the current Stanford Hospital. The facility will include a flexible pavilion design, which will include 368 patient rooms in the new building for a total of 600 patient beds on site; a new Level 1 Trauma Center (Emergency Department) three times larger in size than the current Emergency Department; state-of-the-art surgical, diagnostic and treatment rooms; light-filled corridors with a central courtyard; accessible roof gardens; and views of the surrounding foothills. The project will result in a net increase of approximately 824,000 square feet, which will allow for additional single-patient rooms that reduce infection rates, increase privacy and allow more space for patients and visitors. The new Stanford Hospital is also base isolated and designed to remain functional after an 8.0 magnitude earthquake.

“The Clark/McCarthy team is very excited to partner with Stanford Hospital & Clinics in building the New Stanford Hospital,” said Rich Henry, McCarthy Northern Pacific Division president. “Our team understands the importance of the new Stanford Hospital facility in serving the healthcare needs of the surrounding community, and we are committed to extending the benefits of this world class medical center to the local and global community.”

The new Stanford Hospital is part of the Stanford University Medical Center Renewal Project, which also includes the expansion of Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and replacement of School of Medicine facilities.

The current Stanford Hospital will remain open and fully operational during construction.

Construction of the new Stanford Hospital is slated to be completed in 2017 and open for operation in early 2018. Rafael Viñoly Architects (RVA), in association with Lee, Burkhart, Liu, Inc. (LBL), serves as the project architect.

For more information on the project visit: www.sumcrenewal.org

About McCarthy
McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is the largest healthcare general contractor in America (Modern Healthcare, March 2013), and the largest general contractor in California (ENR California, August 2012). With nearly 150 years of experience, McCarthy is one of the nation’s oldest, privately held construction firms. Committed to the construction of high performance buildings, the company provides general contracting, construction management, program management and design/build services for healthcare, education, commercial, parking structure, entertainment, retail, science, technology, and industrial facilities; office buildings; tenant interiors; and mixed-use. In addition to Sacramento and San Francisco, McCarthy has offices in Newport Beach and San Diego, Calif.; Phoenix; Albuquerque; Las Vegas; Dallas; Houston; St. Louis; Collinsville, Ill.; and Atlanta. McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned. Follow McCarthy on Facebook at www.facebook.com/mccarthybuilding.

The Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center acute care campus originally was developed in 1973 upon the donation of the 32-acre land parcel.  The East Tower, which provided 139 inpatient beds, opened in 1979 and was augmented in 1989 with the Birch Patrick skilled nursing facility, which added an additional 100 beds for skilled nursing and long-term care beds.  The campus was expanded in 1991 with the addition of the West Tower, providing an additional 104 inpatient beds and expanding the hospital’s women’s health and emergency care services to residents of the south bay region of San Diego County.

Over the years, Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center has continued to grow and become the busiest emergency department per bed in the County, treating 50,000 patients last year alone.  The key issues currently affecting the hospital’s ability to adequately serve the community’s health needs are the need to increase inpatient bed capacity and improve dietary services, surgical services, parking and campus infrastructure in an affordable manner.  The success of the master planning efforts to meet these needs is credited to the effective collaboration between the Sharp HealthCare leadership team, the design-build team and the Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center management team.

“The selection of McCarthy with Cuningham Group as a design-build team was a novel approach to master planning that delivered a realistic approach to evaluating previous master plan concepts from the perspective of constructability, project timelines and schedules, facility disruption, and capital budgeting while also lowering costs,” said Pat Nemeth, vice president of facilities for Sharp HealthCare. “The process included weekly owner-design/builder meetings to keep all team members up to speed on issues and findings throughout the entire master planning process.”

The master planning process focused on seven main goals: 1) Define the key issues driving the need for expansion; 2) identify all site locations suitable for the expansion; 3) evaluate those locations for build ability and functional adjacencies; 4) create test-to-fit floor plan layouts; 5) establish the phasing approach; 6) develop a realistic budget; and 7) build a phased-approach schedule and timeline.

Based on the geological report, the entire team agreed to expand the scope of services and do a thorough seismic evaluation to verify the validity of four proposed site locations. This turned out to be a critical step in the master planning process, eliminating two of the four locations due to code requirements. The team then focused on additional factors that would impact their final decision, including image and identity for the campus, accessibility and access to parking, functional relationships to the existing hospital, patient flow, SB-1953 seismic compliance, constructability, cost effectiveness and disruption to campus operations.

“While the two remaining locations both had a direct connection to the existing hospital, site 2 on the east side of the hospital campus proved to have a stronger connection to the existing major diagnostic and treatment service areas and stood out as the optimal location,” said Randy Burns, design manager for McCarthy. “From there, the team created test-to-fit floor plan layouts that supported the identified needs of the hospital while improving patient flow, increasing operation efficiency and enhancing the patient experience.”

A phased approach to the expansion project allowed the design-build team to align Sharp’s capital expenditures with its primary needs. Phase I, proposed for completion by fall 2015, would ready the campus for the major tower addition. Phase II, targeted for completion in spring of 2018, encompasses construction of the new East Tower, providing an additional 34 beds, expanding surgery and dietary services, replacing the receiving dock and building a new central cooling plant.  Phase III, targeted for completion in 2030, would include finishing out levels four and five on the new tower to add an additional 68 new beds. Phases IV and V, also proposed for completion in 2030, would include upgrading the existing East Tower podium from SPC 2 to SPC-5, building a new West Tower to replace the existing 139 beds in the old, non-compliant East Tower, and decommissioning the old tower from “acute care service.”

The construction schedule was developed to maximize the value of the capital. Construction costs will remain lowered in the wake of the recession and the schedule will allow Sharp to take full advantage of those lower construction costs. By having taken a design-build approach to the master plan, Sharp HealthCare now has an achievable and cost-effective goal that had been left undetermined by the previously prepared campus master plan studies.

“The design-build team of McCarthy and Cuningham Group is grateful to Sharp HealthCare for the opportunity to be a part of this unique and rewarding master planning process,” said McCarthy senior vice president Bob Betz, who oversees McCarthy’s San Diego operations.  “The success of this master plan could only have been realized through the collaborative teamwork of Sharp HealthCare’s leadership and Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center’s management team, the medical design and planning expertise of Cuningham Group, and the insight of our knowledgeable design-build consultants.”

Sparling, Inc. is the electrical engineer, TMAD Taylor + Gaines is the mechanical and plumbing engineer, KPFF is the civil and structural engineer, Marum Partnership is the landscape architect, International Parking Design is the parking consultant, Dieli Murawka Howe is the food service consultant and Strom Entitlement is the agency expeditor.

“We’re very pleased with the outcome of this campus master plan,” said Nemeth. “We now have realistic solutions that address our immediate campus needs, our future growth needs, and well as our year 2030 compliance needs.”

About McCarthy
McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is the number one healthcare general contractor in America (Modern Healthcare, March 2013) and the largest general contractor in California. The company is committed to the construction of high performance green buildings; progressive job site technology; and safer, faster and more cost-effective execution. In addition to San Diego, McCarthy has offices in Newport Beach, Sacramento and San Francisco, Calif.; Phoenix; Las Vegas; St. Louis; Dallas; Houston; Atlanta; Albuquerque; and Collinsville, Ill. McCarthy is 100 percent employee-owned. More information about the company is available online at www.mccarthy.com.