The Hospital Bed Expansion project will add 72 critical care capable patient rooms to the University Hospital. The project consists of 12 private room nursing units located on each of floors 3 through 8. The patient rooms are designed to be critical care capable with a full bathroom. This design allows the room to be used for critical care, step-down care, or acute care. This project will provide much needed bed capacity to the Hospital while providing the maximum flexibility.

The project is a six story, 46,000 gsf addition to the North façade of the Hospital’s Central Bed Tower. The HBE bears on a truss structure constructed over the roof of the 2nd story Lobby. An expanded mechanical penthouse is included to house new air handling equipment to serve the HBE. The project also involves 62,000 gsf of renovation to create the approximately 12,000 gsf nursing units on each of the six patient care floors.

The building structure is structural steel and is designed to maximize the capacity originally built into the University Hospital. The original structural engineers are the structural designers for this project. Their analysis indicated the original foundations have the capacity to bear this addition. Further, the steel columns, with some reinforcing, have the capacity to bear this addition. The truss structure between the 2nd and 3rd Floors allows for an optimal placement of structural columns in the patient care floors.

The design of the exterior was informed, in large part, by the design of the Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center (CCC). The University Hospital Bed Towers are oriented to face this building site. The HBE façade is a glazed curtain wall system strongly influenced by that used on the CCC. On the interior, the patient rooms are oriented to fully utilize this glazed curtain wall system to provide wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling glass. This maximizes the use of natural light in the patient rooms while taking advantage of the Northern exposure.