McCarthy “Tops Out” Texas Children’s Hospital in Austin

McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. recently celebrated the topping out of construction of the Texas Children’s Hospital for children and women in North Austin. The 52-bed, 365,000-square-foot hospital will bring top pediatric and women’s care to families in Austin and Central Texas, as part of Texas Children’s expansion plan. McCarthy broke ground on the hospital in May 2021, and construction is scheduled to be completed in 2024.  

To celebrate the construction milestone, those involved in the project gathered at the site for the topping out and the traditional tree hoisting. Attendees included multiple physicians along with Texas Children’s President & CEO Mark A. Wallace, Texas Children’s Executive Vice President Michelle Riley Brown, Texas Children’s Senior Vice President of Facilities Planning and Development Jill Pearsall, and Texas Children’s Senior Vice President Ivett Shah. McCarthy was represented by Senior Vice President, Business Unit Leader Preston Hodges, Regional President Joseph Jouvenal, and CEO Ray Sedey, along with craft workers on the project.

"Construction milestones are always significant, and it is such a pleasure to recognize and commemorate the focused efforts by the project team to reach this point. For this project, this milestone is even more exciting as we continue our commitment to expand Texas Children's world-class care to serve the families in Central Texas. The McCarthy team understands the importance of this and has been a strong partner along the journey,” said Jill Pearsall, Texas Children’s Senior Vice President of Facilities Planning and Development.
 

McCarthy has continued to meet project milestones while facing multiple challenges, including supply chain issues and labor shortages, while working through a fast-paced schedule of simultaneous construction of the hospital, outpatient building, central utility plant, and parking garage. With competition for both materials and manpower, McCarthy leveraged their regional craft resources and their partnership with Adaptive Construction Solutions, Inc. (ACS) which was formed to recruit and train veterans for careers in construction trades and craft labor. The veteran’s apprentice program gives workers off and on-site training that includes technical and safety training before beginning work.

“We are excited to see this project come one step closer to completion,” said Hodges. “Our team has done an incredible job by showcasing McCarthy’s commitment to client service and delivering an excellent project. It brings us great joy knowing this project will help countless local families in the future.”

McCarthy poured approximately 40,000 cubic yards of concrete in less than six months. Drones were used on-site to provide aerial videos and 360-degree photos, allowing Texas Children’s and the design team to virtually access the project. The field team used the footage to coordinate work programs to ensure the schedule was moving forward appropriately. Additionally, during the design phase McCarthy conducted subsurface mapping which provided a thorough understanding of the utilities that lie beneath the job site.

Located at 9835 North Lake Creek Parkway, the 365,000-square-foot main hospital offerings will include but not be limited to the following:

• neonatal intensive care
• pediatric intensive care
• operating rooms
• epilepsy monitoring
• sleep center
• emergency center
• fetal center for advanced fetal interventions and fetal surgery with a special high risk delivery unit
• heart center
• cardiovascular intensive care
• renal dialysis
• state-of-the-art diagnostic imaging
• acute care
• an on-site Texas Children’s Urgent Care location.

The adjacent 170,000-square-foot outpatient facility will provide added value by directly connecting patients and their families to Texas Children’s numerous subspecialties, including cardiology, oncology, neurology, pulmonology, gastroenterology, rheumatology, fetal care, dialysis, and more.

McCarthy has worked on several projects with Texas Children’s including the Texas Children’s Specialty Care location in Austin, which was a build-out of 28,000 square feet consisting of an administrative suite, waiting areas, and clinical areas for various subspecialty services including allergy and immunology, cardiology, ophthalmology, pulmonology, and imaging services as well as completed renovations within the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute (Duncan NRI) in Houston, which included a laboratory build out and 32,000 square feet of auditorium and conference space to host research symposia, scientific seminars, and other programs.

With an extensive portfolio of multi-phase healthcare and research facility projects, McCarthy is ideally suited to take on healthcare and research projects of any size or complexity. Some of McCarthy’s other healthcare projects include Parkland Moody Center for Breast Health in Dallas, CHRISTUS Mother Frances Hospital - Tyler expansion, CHRISTUS Spohn in Corpus Christi, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Alkek Hospital Expansion and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center The Pavilion expansion.

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About McCarthy

McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is the oldest privately held national construction company in the country – with more than 150 years spent collaborating with partners to solve complex building challenges on behalf of its clients. With an unrelenting focus on safety and a comprehensive quality program that span all phases of every project, McCarthy utilizes industry-leading design phase and construction techniques combined with value-add technology to maximize outcomes. Repeatedly honored as a Best Place to Work and Healthiest Employer, McCarthy is ranked the 13th largest domestic builder (Engineering News-Record, 2021). With approximately 5,000 salaried employees and craft professionals, the firm has offices in St. Louis, Atlanta; Collinsville, Ill.; Kansas City, Kan.; Omaha, Neb.; Phoenix; Las Vegas; Denver; Dallas, Houston; and San Diego, Newport Beach, San Francisco, San Jose and Sacramento, Calif. McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned. More information about the company is available online at www.mccarthy.com or by following the company on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.