BJC Memorial Hospital East Medical Office Building

Background

Soon after Memorial Hospital East’s doors opened in 2016, the need for additional space arose. Memorial Regional Health Services in affiliation with BJC Healthcare decided to build an office building for routine services and physician offices in addition to relocating primary care and some specialty care.

Holland Construction Services, Inc., was chosen to lead a design-build team with Archimages, Inc., for the new medical office building next to Memorial Hospital East.

The Initial Idea

Memorial Hospital East wanted the office building to be completed quickly and within the designated budget. The project presented challenges:

• Getting design completed on time to avoid construction delays
• Building on an existing campus
• Limiting change orders  

Enter Holland

Holland’s team worked closely with Archimages to create a medical office building for Memorial and BJC. Despite a location change after the request for proposal (RFP), the team succeeded in completing the project on time.

Expediting Design Completion

Completing the design phase of the project on time was essential in avoiding delays in construction. The post-proposal location change presented an unforeseen challenge, requiring modification of the site, utility, and architectural plans. The team was able to complete the design portion of the project with an aggressive coordination and design meetings that were held twice per week. The building site was moved, and the design did not impact the construction schedule or completion date.

Building on an Existing Campus

With construction comes a lot of moving parts. A major challenge was building on an existing and functioning medical campus, requiring accommodation of employees and the public. On this project, construction affected employees more than the public: the construction site displaced the staff parking lot. Holland chose to delay the closure of the staff parking lot for six months and started construction at the late-start date to minimize disruption to the staff and allow the site to continue uninterrupted operation.

Limiting Change Orders

In order to complete the project on time and on budget, the Holland team needed to limit the number of change orders throughout the project. Holland succeeded in having no change orders due to design errors or omissions, unforeseen conditions, or any other reason. One hundred percent of the change orders for the project were owner directed due to the need to accommodate additional tenants in the building.