Parkland Hospital – First Hand Report

The project team includes HDR and Corgan (HDR+C) for design and BARA, a joint venture of Balfour Beatty, Austin Commercial, HJ Russell, and Azteca Enterprise for construction.  The event panelists were Lou Saksen with Parkland Hospital, Sam Moses and David Graham with BARA, Jim Henry, AIA, with HDR+C, Tina Larsen with Corgan and Chuck Armstrong, AIA, with Corgan.

Parkland Hospital’s project approach included a Patient Advisory Committee and input from industry consultants nationwide.  The panel discussed the project culture they wished to put into action which was collaborative approach, servant leadership and a no jerk rule (those working on the project delivery team were required to sign a team document).  Both the design and construction teams co-located to the site to work closely with the hospital.

The new Parkland Hospital includes:

• Over 2.1 Million square feet,
• 961 licensed facility beds,
• 108 Emergency Rooms,
• 27 Operating Rooms and
• Almost 4,000 parking spaces.

The panelist from HDR+C elaborated on some of the interesting features of the new Parkland hospital.  Part of the building will feature an exterior glazing treatment featuring a graphic of trees that will morph the tree leaves appropriately to the seasons. Digitally applied coating on the building will create a gradient effect. Street and flow patterns were reconsidered to integrate the new Parkland 3.0 with the existing hospital buildings.   

Panelists from BARA discussed how pull planning has been used successfully during construction.  Fully-finished patient bathrooms, MEP racks, headwalls and other items were created at a prefabrication facility two blocks from the project site.  A mock-up wall was erected to prepare for rebar; there were four trial runs before the process was perfected.  Weekly construction meetings recognized workers doing a good job with the distribution of gift cards.  One common budget has ensured faster payment to contractors. 

During the construction of this project there were:

• More than 100 trade contractors;
• Over 150 MWBE vendors, consultants, contractors and suppliers (MWBE participation goal was 30%, actual at May 2014 is 39%);
• 47% less RFIs than anticipated with a response time average of 23% less than projected; and
• Over 6 million man-hours.

The new Parkland Hospital is scheduled to open in 2015 and is on track for USGBC LEED Silver certification.  For more information, click here.

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