Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU celebrates construction milestone

The Children’s Hospital of Richmond (CHoR) at Virginia Commonwealth University on Monday “topped out” its new Children’s Pavilion, marking the placement of the highest steel beam of the pavilion’s 15-story frame.

With the  beam in place, the project is one step closer to completion. The $168 million, 640,000-square-foot facility will serve as the region’s most advanced outpatient facility dedicated to children when it opens in 2016.

It will house 72 exam rooms, a surgical area with two operating rooms, areas for diagnostic testing and imaging and laboratory services, as well as family amenities, retail space and faculty offices.

Construction also will include an attached parking garage with more than 600 spaces.

The new structure is being built adjacent to the existing Children’s Pavilion, across the street from VCU Medical Center in downtown Richmond. Construction of the pavilion has created 150 skilled trade jobs, and that number is expected to grow to nearly 500 when interior construction is fully operational. The pavilion spans 170 feet from the ground level to the top of the penthouse, contains 2,500 tons of steel and 41,000 cubic yards of concrete (4,000 pounds per cubic yard).

Since breaking ground in 2012, CHoR said in a release that it has hired nearly 40 new pediatric specialists, increased research funding by 30 percent and developed two new advanced training fellowship programs.

“While construction crew members worked together to build the structural frame you see today, groups of CHoR team members from all disciplines have been collaborating to develop new programs, implement process improvements and enhance the patient experience we provide now – and that we will provide within the walls of the new pavilion,” Leslie Wyatt, the hospital’s executive director, said in a statement.

The pavilion’s design by HKS Inc. recently won a 2014 American Institute of Architects Academy of Architecture for Healthcare Design Award for its visionary strength, which addresses aesthetic, civic, and urban concerns.