Bellows
BYLINE
SPRING 2016
Project Profiles
Medical Center Renovation Team
Project in Progress
Texas Children’s Hospital, Pediatric Tower E Expansion
Bellows Family Picnic Employee Spotlight
Brent Miller, Vice President of Estimating
Project Profiles | Medical Center Renovation Team The Texas Medical Center | Houston, Texas
Building Healing Environments
The Texas Medical Center (TMC) is the world’s largest medical complex. Today, the TMC is comprised of 21 renowned hospitals, 14 support organizations, 10 academic institutions, eight academic and research institutions, seven nursing programs, three public health organizations, three medical schools, two pharmacy schools, and a dental school. The mission of the Texas Medical Center is “to assist member institutions to achieve their goals for the highest possible standards of patient care, of medical and health education, and of related research.” While Bellows’ contribution to the TMC is quite different, we share in their mission statement of supporting the advancement of medicine by building innovative, state-of-the-art facilities for all of the area institutions. Bellows’ projects span all throughout Houston but some of our most complex jobs happen in the heart of the Texas Medical Center due to the efforts of the Bellows Medical Center Renovation Team (MCRT). Since 2009, Bellows has operated a permanent MCRT satellite office in the heart of the TMC to respond to the needs of our clients promptly, 24/7. In addition to our MCRT office, we have in-hospital offices for some of our
institutional partners. These offices provide immediate availability and service which ultimately translates to added value for our clients. Bellows has completed building and renovation projects on nine medical campuses, including 300+ projects with Texas Children’s Hospital and 80+ projects with Baylor College of Medicine. Other area institutions such as Rice University, CHI St. Luke’s Health, and Memorial Hermann are also current and repeat clients. Under the leadership of Nick Mathews, Director of Operations, our MCRT office has recently completed several complex jobs for Texas Children’s Hospital, Memorial Hermann, and Rice University. While new, large projects are impressive due to their size and scope, the medical renovations are just as impressive because they are challenged with aggressive schedules, a quick turnover time, limited site access, work time and noise constraints, and infection control guidelines, to name a few. In order to showcase our team’s capabilities, we are providing snapshot profiles of recently completed MCRT projects.
Texas Children’s Hospital Level 5 Pavilion for Women Pediatric Radiology Buildout
This 24,700-GSF buildout included the renovation of shell space that now houses a waiting room, office support, and prep/recovery areas. In addition to the diagnostic rooms, the suite also contains 12 patient holding/recovery beds, an isolation room, a treatment room, nurse station, soiled work room, clean supply, medication rooms, a decay holding room, and a separate sub-waiting area. The suite has a main waiting area off the public elevators with staff support spaces including an on-call room, child life storage, work room, break room/locker room, and a virtual office. The project team was tasked with the complex coordination of relocating three MRI units, a Pet MR, a Pet CT, two Spect cameras, and the relocation of an existing Spect CT from one building to the other. This move required lane closures on two separate roads. The precast and glass on Level 4 of the Clinical Care Building was removed, the MRI was lifted out of the building with a crane, and was then loaded onto a flat-bed truck and carefully transported to the Pavilion for Women building where a second crane lifted the MRI onto Level 5. This delicate process was executed three times to transfer all MRIs.
Memorial Hermann
Gamma Knife This renovation project occurred in two phases. Phase I consisted of relocating the existing Gamma Knife Department from the ground level of the Robertson Pavilion to the Jones Pavilion basement. The Gamma Knife Department moved into the former Occupational Health Department. Phase II involved demolition and reconstruction of the area vacated by the Occupational Health and Neurophysiology Departments. The renovated space is now the co-location of the Gamma Knife and Neurophysiology Departments. The total renovated footprint for all three departments is 12,208 GSF.
Bellows Byline | Spring 2016
Project Profiles | Medical Center Renovation Team The Texas Medical Center | Houston, Texas
Gamma Knife (Cont’d) This project required relocation of all of the water/drain lines above the Gamma Knife room which posed a unique and challenging experience since these utility lines served the entire building. Rerouting of the supply and return air trunks created another hurdle since these trunk lines served occupied space in the basement. Also, due to the weight of the equipment, the existing slab on grade in the Gamma Knife room had to be removed and reinforced in order to support a live load of 50 tons. With this site located in the basement, 30 yards of concrete had to be manually pushed one block through an active hospital, down the elevator, to the basement.
Memorial Hermann Jones Level 4 Spine Unit
This was a 10,290-SF complete interior renovation of an existing NICU unit that resulted in a 16-bed universal care suite. The space includes one isolation room, three bariatrics rooms, staff lounge, nurse station, offices, equipment room, clean supply, soiled utility, nourishment, and medication space. Demolition of existing MEP to accommodate the new layout and a new air handler was added to serve the suite. All adjacent areas of the Jones Building were able to remain fully operational throughout the duration of the project. A material hoist was erected to allow access of material and personnel into the site in order to avoid disruption to the adjacent stroke unit. With patient floors above, below, and adjacent to the site, careful coordination of noise and utility outages had to be coordinated weeks, sometimes months, ahead with several departments. New exhaust duct work for the isolation rooms had to run above the ceiling through multiple stroke unit rooms. With the census at 100%, access to one room at a time was given to modify existing MEP above the ceiling to allow space for the exhaust duct.
Rice University, BRC Dr. Bao’s Laboratory
This project was the buildout of 2,000 SF of laboratory and office space in existing shell space in Rice’s BioSciences Research Collaborative building. The renovation included a new microscope room, dark room, open lab area with one fume hood, and two new faculty offices. Utility shutdowns had to be well coordinated with the building so that any experiments in process would not be interrupted.
Rice University
Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen (OEDK) The primary goals of this renovation project were to expand the existing first floor workshop into the basement and to create a strong visual, spatial, and contextual relationship between the two floors. The signature element of the design is a new sculptural stairway with integrated work surface that connects the two floors through a large, new aperture. In addition to creating convenient vertical circulation between the two floors, the program also includes offices, a conference room, an electronics workshop, an e-learning zone, and a general engineering workshop designed to facilitate reconfiguration, collaboration, and student/staff interaction.
Bellows Byline | Spring 2016
Project
in
Progress
Texas Children’s Hospital, Pediatric Tower E Expansion | Houston, Texas
Going Vertical
The moment you step onto this bustling construction site in the sky, you immediately comprehend the complexity of the project and the highly-qualified manpower that this 19-story expansion requires. Before going vertical, the project team first had to remove the existing sitework and landscaping in order to establish a material laydown area. Next, the team installed the tower crane that runs through the existing 6-story structure down to Basement Level 4. This involved removing existing knockout slabs on Levels B4 - B1, 1, 2, 3, and 7 and installing the tower crane on previously installed anchor bolts. The team then installed the material hoist which is operated along the exterior of the existing occupied building. Windows had to be replaced by wood panels in order to brace the hoist to the building. Additionally, they had to complete roof protection over Level 6 which holds the lifeblood of the fully-operational hospital, its power source and emergency generators. Level 6 is also where the expansion connects with the existing building. Forming and pouring concrete on each added level requires approximately 1,600 cubic yards of slab and beam concrete in three pours and approximately 230 cubic yards of column and shearwall concrete. There are several unique challenges for this project with the first being limited space for a laydown area. Since the hospital is located on a tight site surrounded by highly-trafficked city streets and the light rail line, the delivery of materials must be carefully orchestrated. Secondly, safety is a high priority and concern on all of our projects but especially on one of this magnitude. The number of workers will range from approximately 150 to 550 over the course of construction. Our Vice President of Safety, Tommy Lee, and his team ensure that every person on site is up-to-date on our safety methodology, procedures, and training. As a result, there have been no lost-time incidents to date. Lastly, unlike constructing a building from the ground up, a vertical expansion of an occupied building, particularly a hospital, requires close coordination with its occupants and acute awareness of the daily functions of the existing facility. Procedures using the highly specialized equipment located in the Pediatric Tower E cannot be disrupted, so proper communication with the users and adequate notice on the shutdown requests will be required through the completion of the project. The next major construction milestone will be the topping out of the Pediatric Tower E which is scheduled for the first quarter of 2017. This is the third vertical expansion that Bellows has constructed for Texas Children’s Hospital in the last 16 years.
Bellows Family Picnic 2016
Family, Food, and Fun
In April, Bellows hosted a family picnic at our main campus for all of our employees and their families. The Bellows Cook Team, led by Mark Self, prepared the delicious BBQ and the Kubin brothers, Tommy and David, boiled up some tasty crawfish. Everyone enjoyed door prizes, water balloon tosses, three-legged races, face painting, and a baking contest. It was a wonderful opportunity to come together as a ‘family’ to catch up, relax, and just have fun! We are all so fortunate to work with such a fantastic group of people.
Bellows Byline | Spring 2016
W. S. Bellows Construction Corporation P.O. Box 2132 | Houston, TX 77252-2132 713.680.2132 | 713.680.2614 Visit our website: www.wsbellows.com
Employee Spotlight
Brent Miller, Vice President of Estimating, Takes the Helm of the Estimating Department Brent Miller began his career at Bellows as a project engineer after spending four summers working as a laborer for the company. A graduate of Texas A&M University’s Building Construction program, Brent decided to go into construction because he “wanted a job that would bring new challenges and would not tie me to a desk all day.” He saw that potential with Bellows while touring the Wortham Theatre jobsite after meeting with the late Warren S. Bellows, Jr. Raised in Texas since he was nine, Brent was excited that his first major job with Bellows took him out to California to work on the 777 Tower in Downtown Los Angeles. His assignment was initially supposed to be six weeks long, but he ended up spending 53 weeks there to see the job to completion. Brent recalls working as a project manager on the Audrey Jones Beck Building at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston as his favorite job. “There were a lot of complicated challenges and logistics that made this landmark project very unique and interesting to work on.” Other notable projects include the Lora Jean Kilroy Visitor and Education Center, the Houston Zoo African Gorilla Forest, and the Alley Theatre Renovation. After leaving Bellows in 2001 to explore different opportunities, Brent came back ‘home’ in 2008. Coming up on his twentieth year at Bellows, he has worked his way up the ranks as Project Engineer, Estimator, Project Manager, and Chief Estimator to his current position, Vice President of Estimating. Brent took on the lead estimating role following the recent retirement of Jack Roberts whom he formerly worked under. Brent attributes his tenure with Bellows to the culture of the company. “Bellows is an honest company and loyal to their employees. We promote a family-like atmosphere throughout the company which extends to our clients as well.” Brent enjoys spending his free time in the country with his wife, Patti, and their two children, Katelyn and Scott. Katelyn is a senior at Texas A&M University and Scott is a freshman at Stephen F. Austin State University. When he’s not running the Bellows estimating department, Brent is looking over spreadsheets for Katelyn’s upcoming wedding to make sure everything stays within budget. However, we won’t be surprised if Brent works in a few cost savings after everything is all said and done.