McCarthy Building Companies, Inc., one of the top healthcare builders in Texas and nationally, recently completed a build-out of the ninth floor of the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute (NRI) at Texas Children’s Hospital, which includes approximately 23,000 square-feet of new, state-of-the-art lab space. Construction on the project began in November 2017.
Within the Texas Medical Center, the Texas Children’s NRI level nine lab project consisted of building general lab areas, write-up areas, tissue culture rooms, surgery room, rig rooms, a cold room, offices, a conference room and break areas. It also features a two-story, spiral-monumental stair case that connects the lab to upper floors, as well as a new mechanical room with new mechanical equipment to support the space.
The project included complex mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems that were coordinated using BIM modeling to ensure they could fit in the limited above-ceiling space and the process was accelerated over six weeks to meet the overall schedule. Exterior louver panels on levels eight and nine were removed in order to position the new air handler for the floor and the prefabricated spiral stairs. Teams coordinated shop drawings for both the air handler and stairs to maximize the size of the prefabricated sections while still allowing them to fit through the restrictive louver opening. McCarthy required careful planning and extensive engineering to set up the crane for these items and not bear over-sensitive utility areas around the congested alleyway behind the building.
Furthermore, the two-story spiral stair was constructed within an existing shaft and tied into the occupied 10th floor. McCarthy utilized a detailed scaffolding and rigging plan to lift the stair sections into place over the five-story shaft opening. A crash deck and dance floor were assembled and moved through each floor as each level of the stair were installed. Containment was set up on level 10 during the process to minimize any impact to the building’s occupants and two levels of stairs were connected to the existing monumental spiral stairs going from levels five to 10. The additional two levels extend the original building design for the stairs and are meant to mirror a double helix DNA strand.
“Complex healthcare and research projects are a big part of what we do at McCarthy,” said Preston Hodges, McCarthy Houston Division Vice President. “We understand the complex coordination and planning required to execute a successful project inside an active facility with the safety of faculty, staff, visitors and on-site construction workers as our number one priority.”
McCarthy’s extensive portfolio of multi-phase healthcare and research facility projects makes it ideally suited to take on healthcare and research projects of any size or complexity, while allowing the facility to remain operational while under construction. In addition to the newly completed renovations at the NRI level nine lab, some of McCarthy’s other healthcare projects include CHRISTUS Spohn in Corpus Christi, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Alkek Hospital Expansion, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center The Pavilion expansion and the Children’s Health Plano Campus, Specialty Center II.
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About McCarthy
McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is the oldest privately held national construction company in the country – with more than 150 years spent collaborating with partners to solve complex building challenges on behalf of its clients. With an unrelenting focus on safety and a comprehensive quality program that span all phases of every project, McCarthy utilizes industry-leading design phase and construction techniques combined with value-add technology to maximize outcomes. Repeatedly honored as a Best Place to Work and Healthiest Employer, McCarthy is ranked the 15th largest domestic general contractor (Engineering News-Record, May 2017). With approximately 1,800 salaried employees and offices in Houston, Dallas; St. Louis, Atlanta; Collinsville, Ill.; Portage, Ind.; Kansas City, Kan.; Omaha, Neb.; Phoenix; Las Vegas; Denver; and San Diego, Newport Beach, San Francisco, San Jose and Sacramento, Calif. McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned. More information about the company is available online at the website or by following the company on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.