Builders at the Miami University of Ohio campus planned a convenient location for the new Clinical Health Sciences and Wellness facility. When completed, the 165,000-sq.-ft. structure would be positioned close to Miami’s Recreational Sports Center, Goggin Ice Arena and Phillips Hall.
(Miami University photo)
Sometimes the right place to put a building is where it is convenient. Even when it is inconvenient. Builders at the Miami University of Ohio campus planned a convenient location for the new Clinical Health Sciences and Wellness facility. When completed, the 165,000-sq.-ft. structure would be positioned close to Miami's Recreational Sports Center, Goggin Ice Arena and Phillips Hall.
The three wings of the Health Sciences facility will connect three academic programs and three clinics. The south wing will contain Miami's TriHealth employee and student health centers, the speech and hearing clinic and student counseling. The middle wing will contain offices, inter-professional lounges and laboratories for speech and audiology. The north wing will house speech and audiology academic programs, nursing and physician associate (PA) training.
Locating the nursing and PA programs should benefit both disciplines and establish new norms for how these students will interact.
The construction of the building was begun during the pandemic and will open in spring 2023. Construction was coordinated by Messer Construction at the cost of about $100 million.
Many of the students using the new building live on campus within walking distance. However, patients using the facility often will be driving, so the building was located close to a street and parking garage.
All these conveniences came at a cost. Among the inconveniences was that this location was the site of the student/faculty health clinic and student counseling service department. Construction workers renovated another space on campus to house these clinics, then demolished the original structures.
Excess Water
Another inconvenience about this prime location was the high water table. As the foundations were installed, workers built a dewatering system. Much like a French drain for a house, the system pumped water into a large underground retention vault. Planners designed the water to then be redirected as "graywater" for watering plants and other non-drinking use on campus.
Cody Powell, associate vice president of facilities planning and operation of the university, worked closely with the construction team.
"The three wings of the facility are connected, which will support easy access to the classrooms, simulation labs and administrative functions," he said.
The form of the building with the three wings will lend easily to construction that might come later.
"In the future, the university might want to add a fourth wing," said Powell. "Also, this structure allows lots of natural light and is not just a big box."
The project required a significant amount of materials, including about 5,800 cu. yds. of concrete and 785 tons of structural steel, incorporating 11 tons of bar joists and 164 tons of metal deck. Workers used 326 ram aggregate piers in building the foundation.
Miami University is a bustling campus with nearly 20,000 students. Construction at this key location was bound to influence them.
"No question, this was a disruptive activity," said Powell. "It was near recreational centers and a parking garage. We partitioned the area off to keep the students safe. We also accelerated our activity in the summer when fewer students were around."
Some of the steel work and stairwells were prefab, but most of the building was done on site.
"Our design team has done a lot of work on the campus and uses a flow schedule for work," said Powell. "Rather than each trade working simultaneously on all the wings at the same time, the flow schedule allows each trade to complete one wing and then move on to the next one. This keeps smaller crews of all the trades on site all the time."
Powell described the work on the structure as non-cookie cutter. Each wing had labs, innovative equipment and collaborative spaces. He called it a challenging project for the architecture and engineering teams.
Carbon Footprint
Another innovation for the team that designed and built the wellness facility was the drive for green building activity. This required planners and workers to put their heads together to focus on various ways to conserve or do less.
"We tried to focus on low-energy consumption for a campus building," said Powell. "The building will be served by a central plant for simultaneous heating and cooling."
Lighting, glass and mechanical systems all figured into this equation. The team hopes to achieve a minimum of a silver LEED rating for the project.
Building during COVID had its own unique set of difficulties.
"Not only was it challenging to get the right type of skilled labor on the job, but we also faced nationwide supply issues," Powell said.
Even common materials like roofing, insulation and rubber were hard to obtain, forcing many product substitutions.
Steve Large, assistant vice president for health and wellness of Miami University, believes the new facility will uniquely serve the students and community. He sees the interdisciplinary approach and opportunities for collaboration as key in the new building.
"The clinicians, faculty, staff and students will find the opportunity to connect and learn from each other," said Large. "There is a great need for talented healthcare professionals. We hope to fill that need here at our university. We believe that by locating academic and clinical departments close to each other, the end result will be increased collaboration and partnership. We think this will mean that healthcare professionals here will be well prepared for transdisciplinary work." CEG
Chuck MacDonald
Chuck MacDonald is an editor, blogger and freelance feature writer whose writing adventures have taken him to 48 states and 10 countries. He has been the editor for magazines on pavement construction, chemicals, insurance and missions. Chuck enjoys bicycling, kayaking and reading. He graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in journalism. Chuck lives in Annapolis, Md. with his wife Kristen. They have seven grandchildren.
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