THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY WEXNER MEDICAL CENTER INPATIENT TOWER

LOCATION: Columbus, OH

SIZE: 1.9 Million SF

STATUS: Construction Documents/ Construction

FIRM: HDR INC

ROLE: Design Coordinator/ Architect

A key member of the Patient Tower Team responsible for planning and documenting floors 10 through 24. These floors included ICU patient rooms, acuity adaptable patient rooms, and all women and infant patient rooms. Co-lead on-site user workshops, client presentations, and Mock-up reviews. Worked closely with Senior Healthcare Planners to develop the overall floor plans, enlarged detailed plans, reflected ceiling plans, equipment plans, elevations and details. Coordinated conflicts and changes with core and shell, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, IT, equipment, and life safety consultants. Lead the effort on all women and infant floors, which covered over 200,000 SF and included 39 single NICU rooms, two twin NICU rooms, three triplet NICU rooms, nine couplet care rooms, milk/formula labs, eight triage rooms, 18 antepartum rooms, 16 labor and delivery rooms, pre/post op recovery areas, four c-section OR’s, 49 postpartum rooms, and two nurseries. The parking garage and tower foundation has been under construction for some time, while the construction documents for the tower was just released for permitting at the end of 2020.

PROJECT SUMMARY: The new 26 story inpatient hospital will be one of the tallest and largest structures in Columbus when it is completed. It will include up to 820 private critical care and medical/surgical beds(which includes a new COVID/future pandemic ready unit); 60 neonatal intensive care unit (ICU) bassinets; imaging; and 24 operating rooms (ORs) including two hybrid OR suites. The lower floors feature an outdoor terrace and conservatory space for patients and visitors that is planned to connect via a bridge to a future park across the street.

HDR has been involved since the initial programming and concept design effort. Our team audited the condition, usage, and utility of all buildings on the existing medical center campus in order to optimize the use of existing structures in combination with new facilities. A highly-integrated, multidisciplinary team studied the programmatic, planning, operational, functional, master planning, engineering and architectural aspects of adding a large patient care tower to the existing campus prior to it’s design and documentation.