The heart of suburban Chicago’s Loyola University Health System and a leading academic medical center, Loyola University Medical Center is undergoing a major renovation led by Mortenson Construction. Part of CHE Trinity Health, one of the largest Catholic health systems in the nation, Loyola University Medical Center is renovating the first floor of the main hospital to update its gastroenterology suite, observation unit and interventional radiology rooms. It also is upgrading the heating, water, cooling and electrical systems for six buildings on its Maywood, Ill. medical campus.
“The medical center is making important investments in its facilities to improve care and operate more efficiently, demonstrating again its national leadership in medicine and health reform,” says Larry Arndt, general manager of healthcare for Mortenson Construction’s Chicago office. “These improvements are focused on supporting the medical staff in caring for patients.”
For the medical campus, Mortenson is drawing on its extensive healthcare experience and industry-leading use of technology to improve quality, efficiency and worker safety. Mortenson specializes in managing complex renovations in hospitals and other occupied buildings, working weekends and nights and doing whatever it takes to minimize the disruption to doctors, nurses, medical students, patients, and staff.
Coordinating with architect VOA Associates Inc. and the medical center’s construction manager Hammes Co., Mortenson is tackling the gut-rehab project, scheduled for completion in March 2016, in four stages. The first phase, now underway, involves building temporary quarters and relocating physical therapy, waiting rooms, offices and other first-floor services in preparation for phases 2 through 4, which will reconfigure the main floor to include the new observations units and gastroenterology and interventional radiology suites.
Mortenson simultaneously is initiating a long-term plan to overhaul the power infrastructure and other systems for the medical campus. It used a cutting-edge laser scanning tool to accurately map the existing cooling, water, ventilation, heating and electrical systems and spaces. That information was inputted into the business information modeling (BIM) to create detailed 3D models to lay out the new systems and modify existing equipment. The 3D models will be used to resolve any conflicts between systems, such as a heating duct intersecting an electrical conduit, before construction begins and then by the crews to guide construction.
Mortenson has completed $1.3 billion in healthcare projects in the Chicago area, including serving as co-prime contractor of the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.
