Virginia Commonwealth University’s VCU Health broke ground June 22 on the largest capital construction project in its history, a $349.2 million outpatient facility on the university’s Richmond campus that, upon completion in the summer of 2020, will consolidate most of the VCU Massey Cancer Center’s outpatient services within 16 stories and 603,000 sf.
This space is intended to become a hub for comprehensive outpatient healthcare. It will include on-site lab services, medical imaging, women’s services, and rehabilitation services for physical, occupational, and speech therapies. VCU Health’s outpatient orthopedics, pulmonary and urology, will also relocate to the new building, which will feature a dedicated tower for ambulatory oncology care. VCU Massey Cancer Center will have its own entrance, lobby, elevators, clinics, radiation and infusion treatment areas, patient resource spaces, and valet and self-parking areas.
The outpatient facility—which will be on the site once occupied by the Virginia Treatment Center for Children—will include a 472,000-sf parking deck for more than 1,000 vehicles. (The Treatment Center for Children will relocate to the Children’s Hospital at VCU’s Brook Road campus.)
“The oncology tower will be the new hub for most of our cancer services downtown,” says Gordon Ginder, M.D., director of VCU Massey Cancer Center. “Our goal is to create a welcoming, healing environment with easier access, improved patient flow and soothing aesthetics.”
Sandy Tkacz, AIA, ACHA, EDAC, health principal with HDR, the project’s designer, notes that the ambulatory tower “will not only allow patients to have all of these services integrated in the same location for easy navigation, but also change the Richmond skyline and the face of the city.”
The groundbreaking ceremony for VCU Health's new outpatient facility included (from left) George Emerson, a member of VCU Health System Authority Board of Directors; Gordon Ginder, M.D., director of VCU Massey Cancer Center; Marsha Rappley, M.D., CEO of VCU Health System Authority and vice president of health sciences at VCU; Michael Rao, Ph.D, president of Virginia Commonwealth University and VCU Health System; Deborah Davis, CEO of VCU Hospitals and Clinics and vice president for clincal affairs at VCU; Peter Buckley, M.D., dean of the VCU School of Medicine and executive vice president for medical affairs at VCU Health; Harry R. Thalhimer, MCV Foundation chairman of the board; and Larry Little, vice president of support services and planning, VCU Health System. Image; VCU
HDR and Hourigan Construction are design-build partners on the project’s Building Team that also includes Ventana, which will design, manufacture, and install the building’s exterior wall systems, whose skin will consist of punched openings, flat curtainwall, saw-toothed curtainwall, and glass guardrails.
VCU is definitely in expansion mode right now. In May, the university, in joint venture with Sheltering Arms Hospital, began construction on a 200,000-sf, $119 million Rehab Institute within 25 acres of the West Creek Medical Park that will have 114 beds when it opens in 2020. (Hourigan Construction and HDR are working together on this project, too.) Earlier this month, the university broke ground on a $93 million 133,000-sf Engineering Research Building, whose design will emphasize collaboration. (Richmond-based architecture firms Baskervill and Smith McClane Architects, and Boston-based firm Goody Clancy, designed this facility. Washington, D.C.-based Page/SST Planners designed the lab spaces.)
Related Stories
| May 1, 2014
First look: Cal State San Marcos's posh student union complex
The new 89,000-sf University Student Union at CSUSM features a massive, open-air amphitheater, student activity center with a game lounge, rooftop garden and patio, and ballroom space.
| Apr 29, 2014
USGBC launches real-time green building data dashboard
The online data visualization resource highlights green building data for each state and Washington, D.C.
Smart Buildings | Apr 28, 2014
Cities Alive: Arup report examines latest trends in urban green spaces
From vertical farming to glowing trees (yes, glowing trees), Arup engineers imagine the future of green infrastructure in cities across the world.
| Apr 16, 2014
Upgrading windows: repair, refurbish, or retrofit [AIA course]
Building Teams must focus on a number of key decisions in order to arrive at the optimal solution: repair the windows in place, remove and refurbish them, or opt for full replacement.
| Apr 9, 2014
Steel decks: 11 tips for their proper use | BD+C
Building Teams have been using steel decks with proven success for 75 years. Building Design+Construction consulted with technical experts from the Steel Deck Institute and the deck manufacturing industry for their advice on how best to use steel decking.
| Apr 8, 2014
Science, engineering find common ground on the Northeastern University campus [slideshow]
The new Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building is designed to maximize potential of serendipitous meetings between researchers.
| Apr 2, 2014
8 tips for avoiding thermal bridges in window applications
Aligning thermal breaks and applying air barriers are among the top design and installation tricks recommended by building enclosure experts.
| Mar 26, 2014
Callison launches sustainable design tool with 84 proven strategies
Hybrid ventilation, nighttime cooling, and fuel cell technology are among the dozens of sustainable design techniques profiled by Callison on its new website, Matrix.Callison.com.
| Mar 20, 2014
Common EIFS failures, and how to prevent them
Poor workmanship, impact damage, building movement, and incompatible or unsound substrate are among the major culprits of EIFS problems.
| Mar 12, 2014
14 new ideas for doors and door hardware
From a high-tech classroom lockdown system to an impact-resistant wide-stile door line, BD+C editors present a collection of door and door hardware innovations.
