Last week, Bexar County in Texas broke ground for the construction of The Women’s and Children’s Hospital at University Hospital, a freestanding 12-story 600,000-sf tower that will include two separate emergency rooms, 300 beds, and a neonatal intensive care unit. The facility, which is scheduled for completion in late 2022, will open with a 900-space parking garage attached to it.
This $500 million project—whose funding was approved in 2017 by the county, which owns University Health System in partnership with UT Health San Antonio—will serve women and children patients exclusively, making it the first of its kind in South Texas, and one of the few such hospitals in the country.
Currently, children occupy the seventh floor of University Hospital’s 1-million-sf Sky Tower extension (which opened in 2014), and the labor and delivery wing occupies the fourth floor of the Horizon Tower, which was built decades ago.
Originally, this project was planned as a smaller building costing $390 million. But its size and budget were broadened to address the growing population of San Antonio, which is located within this county. San Antonio, with more than 1.5 million people, is the seventh-largest city in the U.S., and one of its fastest growing. The San Antonio metro area, with nearly 2.2 million, makes it the 24th-largest metro in the country.
The Women’s and Children’s Hospital will also serve as a medical school that partners with University Health System on research and educational initiatives.
ZGF, working with local architectural firm Marmon Mok, is programming and designing the new tower. Its construction and engineering partners include general contractors Joeris and JE Dunn, Broaddus & Associates (program management), Affiliated Engineers and Alderson & Associates (MEP), IES/Magnusson Klemencic (SE), and Pape Dawson/Gonzalez De La Garza (CE).
During the construction, the progress of the project can be viewed live via two webcams.
The new tower represents the next phase of the hospital system’s Capital Improvement Program, and as such is being funded without any tax rate increases, according to James Adams, chairman of the Bexar County Hospital District Board of Managers.
Related Stories
| Mar 21, 2012
Iowa’s Mercy Medical Center’s new Emergency Department constructed using Lean design
New Emergency Department features a "racetrack" design with a central nurses' station encircled by 19 private patient examination rooms and 2 trauma treatment rooms.
| Mar 19, 2012
HKS Selected for Baylor Medical Center at Waxahachie
Baylor Medical Center at Waxahachiewill incorporate advanced technology including telemedicine, digital imaging, remote patient monitoring, electronic medical records and computer patient records.
| Mar 14, 2012
Tsoi/Kobus and Centerbrook to design Jackson Laboratory facility in Farmington, Conn.
Building will house research into personalized, gene-based cancer screening and treatment.
| Mar 6, 2012
Country’s first Green House home for veterans completed
Residences at VA Danville to provide community-centered housing for military veterans.
| Mar 1, 2012
7 keys to ‘Highest value, lowest cost’ for healthcare construction
The healthcare design and construction picture has been muddied by uncertainty over the new healthcare law. Hospital systems are in a bind, not knowing what levels of reimbursement to expect. Building Teams serving this sector will have to work even harder to meet growing client demands.
| Feb 29, 2012
Construction begins on Keller Army Community Hospital addition
The 51,000 square foot addition will become the home for optometry, ophthalmology, physical therapy, and orthopedics clinics, as well as provide TRICARE office space.
| Feb 29, 2012
Shepley Bulfinch selected to design new Children’s Hospital of Buffalo
The firm was selected because of their past experience in designing clinically complex facilities that emphasize patient- and family-centered care and operational efficiency as well as distinctive architectural forms for many other children's and women's hospitals.
| Feb 28, 2012
More than 1,000 have earned EDAC certification since 2009
Milestone achieved as evidence-based design becomes a top 2012 strategy for healthcare organizations.
| Feb 28, 2012
McCarthy completes second phase of San Diego’s Scripps Hospital
Representing the second phase of a four-phased, $41.3 million expansion and remodeling project, the new addition doubles the size of the existing emergency department and trauma center to encompass a combined 27,000 square feet of space.
