Opened in 2014, the UT Southwestern Medical Center William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital was a 12-floor, 460-room patient-centered hospital that utilized innovative design, advanced technology, and best practices to provide excellence in care to patients. The site was originally master planned to accommodate clinical inpatient facility growth up to a 750-bed hospital, with appropriate parking garages and support services. Since opening, UT Southwestern has experienced a greater-than-expected demand for care. To meet this need, UT Southwestern embarked on a $480 million, 12-story expansion.

For the original facility, SSR provided mechanical, electrical, plumbing design, and construction administration services. Revit and Navisworks were utilized in the BIM/3-D modeling process to facilitate a constructible model.  A 12.4 KV, two 10MVA feed serves a central plant, materials management building, support services building, and a hospital. The feeds included two active 10MVA feeders and two standby 10MVA feeders in the event of a major failure.

The original project included one HUB partnership for the parking garages, materials management building (MMB), and the thermal energy plant. A second HUB partnership existed for the technology design. As the lead MEP design firm, SSR worked closely with these partner firms to establish a responsibility matrix, share coordination information during the design phase, and help provide an integrated and coordinated project to the owner.

The expansion was a new podium and tower that connects to the existing hospital at each of the 12 floors. The design of the original facility allowed the expansion to proceed with minimal disruption to existing operations. Clements University Hospital, including its ER, remained operational throughout the 30-month project. The expansion allowed for new space to serve as the clinical home for the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute, consolidated acute psychiatric inpatient care services formerly provided at Zale Lipshy Pavilion, and added operating rooms, angiography suites, interventional suites, a high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU), an epilepsy monitoring unit (EMU), an expanded Emergency Department, and two new parking facilities. It brought the total bed count to 750.

Clements University Hospital offers technology and advanced delivery processes to maximize the patient experience. Systems include structured cabling for voice/data, video, and patient monitoring, wireless LAN, wireless telephone, pocket page, radio and entertainment systems, CATV/MATV, RFID/personnel and asset tracking, telemedicine and video conferencing, audio-video presentation systems, nurse call and code blue, security-access control and video surveillance, OR integration, and public address and master clock.

One of the elements of the UTSW project is a dedicated behavioral health floor, including a space where patients could get outside safely. In that initiative, SSR created a behavioral health patient garden on the fifth-floor roof. Design features hide mechanical equipment on the roof, masking the sight and sound of the equipment, ensuring a risk-free area for patients.

The expansion included a HUB partnership for the two parking garages, fire alarm and fire sprinkler systems design, and thermal energy plant upgrades. SSR held the contract for the HUB partnership and took responsibility for directing the MEPT design efforts, design document coordination, construction coordination, and overall success of the MEP and technology systems.