Sacred Heart Medical Center
PCS Business Unit: Major Projects Division
PCS Customer: Turner Construction Company
PCS Project Superintendents: Mike Loyd & Dave Dowell
Location: Springfield, OR
PCS's Performance Date: 2005 - 2008
Project Highlights
Sacred Heart is an innovative ten-story hospital building with square footage equal to the area of 23 football fields (approximately 1 million square feet), located in the pastoral setting of the Willamette Valley on a 181-acre campus along the stunning McKenzie River. The project has its roots in a 1996 study by the Peace Health Oregon Region Governing Board examining the need for a new hospital in the area, bolstered in 2001 by increased patient volumes, and underwent a long planning period until construction officially began in July 2005. Pacific Construction Systems, Inc. (PCS) secured its GMP contract (an unprecedented contract format for a drywall subcontractor in the area) in November 2005 for the drywall, fireproofing, and plastering scopes and immediately began work on the hospital. Substantial Completion of the hospital, and the demobilization of the majority of PCS’s workforce, occurred in March 2008 (PCS would remain a presence on site performing added work until November of 2008). This four year commitment by PCS and the local workforce, consisting of a crew that peaked at 150 members, resulted in the completion of one of the largest hospitals in the Northwest and Lane County’s only Level II Trauma Center, as well as the installation by PCS of more than 75,000 sheets of drywall and a shaft wall system that, if it were to be stacked tall, would equal twice the height of the Empire State Building.
In addition to the challenges proposed by the building of any hospital (high ceilings, long corridors, clean room protocols, and a hospital opening deadline (Sacred Heart opened to the public in August 2008)), this facility would take a unique planning approach by embracing patient-centered, evidence-based, and hospitality designs as some of its central principles. The ideas of keeping the needs of the patients’ emotional and spiritual well-being at the forefront of design and creating a welcoming space that would be a part of the healing process in and of itself, made the implementation of Sacred Heart’s design a unique experience for PCS.
The rustic, lodge-like main lobby atrium was more like sculpting a work of art than building the typical sterile hospital entrance, providing challenging work for PCS with its porte-cochere entrance, tall columns, intricate soffit-work, and terrace-style balconies overlooking the area from the second floor. Patient areas required extreme attention to detail, as the 386 patient rooms and their surrounding areas were designed to convey a sense of comfort and promote an atmosphere of healing. The highly detailed patient rooms, complete with picturesque views, each required their own sill framing (unlike many hospitals, Sacred Heart did not utilize a strip-window system) and special framing was required for the ceiling medallions to be installed at corridor intersections. A Hydromobile scaffolding unit was used to hang most of the gypsum sheathing prior to the installation of the brick façade. PCS was also faced with the utilization and fine-tuning of a myriad of different details for the plaster work, many of which PCS helped finalize through the RFI and change processes. PCS recommended and utilized a Senergy Cement Board 1000 system in lieu of the specified stucco cement plaster due to project size and access to the plaster work (most of it located at the Penthouse and Roof Screen Walls, six floors above ground level). The location of the hospital itself also provided some unique challenges for PCS, specifically regarding the inspection process: the immense size of the project meant that the city of Springfield would not be able to accomplish the required inspections and still keep pace with the schedule, so Peace Health contracted with an independent inspection agency to ensure inspections were accomplished and codes were met.
Coupled with extensive project duration and an "away-game" jobsite, PCS put forth its best effort to meet both the expected and surprising obstacles encountered in a project of this size and type, and is proud to be among the construction teams that helped bring the Sacred Heart hospital to life.
