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Center for Advanced Clinical Studies
The Methodist Hospitals

Merrillville, Indiana

Buildings Home > Case Studies: Healthcare>The Methodist Hospitals

The Center for Advanced Clinical Studies creates a center of excellence for the cancer and neuroscience programs at The Methodist Hospitals Southlake Campus. This 3-story hospital plus basement addition contains 96,000 square feet of space for both inpatient and outpatient departments. These include Medical and Radiation Oncology, Neuroscience, Electrodiagnostics, Sleep Lab, and Neurosurgery offices.

The project features two Linear Accelerator Vaults and a Gamma Knife Vault. These rooms incorporate an average of 4-foot-thick cast-in-place reinforced concrete walls and ceilings for heavy radiation shielding. The hospital sought to “fast track” the Gamma Knife program prior to the completion of the rest of the project, to establish the second Gamma Knife installation in Indiana.

A concrete floor system was selected to allow matching floor elevations with the original building, which also used a concrete flat slab. The floor-to-floor height is 13 feet, 6 ¾ inches at the first floor, and 11 feet, 9 ¾ inches on subsequent floors. The floor framing was easily integrated with the massive concrete placements for the equipment vaults.

Methodist Hospitals wanted to incorporate a ceiling HVAC system with the latest in electrical and low voltage distribution, and getting adequate ceiling height was a real challenge. With spans up to 30 feet, a 10-inch-thick flat slab with 4-inch drop panels was designed to maximize the ceiling plenum and allow up to 9-foot ceilings in some procedural areas on the first floor. Careful coordination between M/E/P engineering systems was essential to ensure success.

Concrete columns 20 inches square support the flat slab and are designed to accommodate an additional floor of future vertical expansion. Concrete shear walls were chosen to resist seismic and wind loads while controlling drift and minimizing movement between the new and existing structures.

Another challenge was the original adjacent 26-foot-deep basement for existing air handlers. The hospital wanted the new addition to match the occupied basement depth of 15 feet, 6 inches below the first floor, but also to have services fed from the deep basement. The typical new spread footings were lowered along the existing deep basement to reduce lateral pressure along the existing deeper foundation wall. A concrete service tunnel was created for chilled water, medical gas, and sprinkler mains fed from the main complex.

Construction began in December 2001, and concrete placements continued throughout the typical blustery Northwest Indiana winter. The general contractor was able to self perform the concrete work, assuring schedule adherence. The Gamma Knife was operational by March 2002. For the three vaults alone 1,480 cubic yards of concrete was used. The project is a major success for the hospital, creating a new image for a state-of-the-art program.


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Owner:
The Methodist Hospitals

Architect/Structural Engineer:
HLM Design, Chicago, Illinois, and Bethesda, Maryland

General Contractor:
Berglund Construction, Chicago, Illinois

Formwork Contractor: CECO Concrete Construction

Concrete Supplier:
Smith Redimix

 
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