Replacing a hospital with a new facility on a constricted urban site presents many challenges. To do so while keeping the existing facility fully operational during construction presents even more. The owner of this urban Boston facility wished to demolish and rebuild its Children's Burns Treatment Facility on its existing site, but the need for uninterrupted patient care and the small site area required that new construction be phased to allow the construction of a new facility above it. Land and relocation costs, and the desire by the client to maintain a below street link to Massachusetts General Hospital, made the existing site the best choice for a new facility.
A phased construction schedule was developed to allow this to happen. Phase One involved building a platform of steel trusses, spanning up to 150', above the existing facility. Columns were carefully located to fit around the existing building, as were stairs and elevators to serve the new upper floors. Above the truss level, which would ultimately house mechanical equipment, four levels of patient care were constructed. Upon completion of this phase, the existing building functions were relocated to the new upper levels.
In Phase Two, the existing building was demolished, leaving the upper levels supported by steel columns. Excavation then began on below grade parking levels and floors one through four, which housed lobby and administrative functions, and medical research. After nine years of design and construction, the lower levels were occupied, and the phased replacement was complete.
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