David Atkisson, JE Dunn’s Senior Project Manager, has many ties to the University and when asked what these projects meant to him, he said, “It is an honor as an MSU alumni to experience this full-circle moment by serving on the teams for both the Judith Enyeart Reynolds Complex and Clifton M. Smart III University Advancement Center projects.”

The first project includes demolition of the Art Annex building and construction of the new 24,000-square -foot Judith Enyeart Reynolds Complex. This state-of-the-art facility will house a lobby/reception space, black box theatre, performance teaching rooms, and additional ancillary space. Craig Hall will also have a scene shop addition and partial renovations, along with site upgrades for both buildings. The construction costs for these projects total approximately $30 million. Both David and Project Superintendent, John Mann, also an MSU alumnus, have shown great dedication to giving back to their alma mater through this project.

With over 30 MSU alumni employed at JE Dunn, the construction of the Clifton M. Smart III University Advancement Center is a special opportunity for alumni to contribute to their university. Zach Blanton, Project Superintendent and MSU alumnus, said, “I’m thrilled to be able to have the opportunity to build what will be an important facility to help advance the growth of an already awesome culture. To be able to do it at a place that was such a pivotal part of my own growth and development is the icing on the cake.”

The new Clifton M. Smart III University Advancement Center will serve as the home for the Missouri State Foundation, Alumni Association, and university advancement staff. This two-story, 28,000-square-foot facility will feature a lobby/reception area, a large banquet hall, an executive board room, enclosed and open office spaces, multiple conference and meeting rooms of various sizes, ancillary support spaces, andan outdoor event courtyard.

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Designed with future generations in mind, the finished hospital will include room for growth and be built to last.

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Cox succeeds Paul Neidlein, who served in the role for six years and has been named President of JE Dunn’s new Advanced Facilities Group, leading projects in the rapid growth of industrial and manufacturing; mission-critical; and advanced industries markets across the country.  

A graduate of Purdue University with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, Cox has more than 22 years of experience in the construction industry. His entire career has been with JE Dunn, starting as a Project Engineer. He has held numerous roles during his tenure, ranging from Project Manager to Vice President, and, most recently, the Director of Construction Operations for the Kansas City office. 

Cox has worked on a variety of project types and has excelled at managing large, complex projects in both preconstruction and construction. A few of his notable projects include the Loews Kansas City and Arlington Convention Center hotels, JE Dunn’s 1st semiconductor manufacturing work in Oregon, the T-Mobile Headquarters Campus, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Richard Bolling Federal Building, and the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department headquarters. 

His leadership and community experience also extend outside of JE Dunn. Cox is a LEED Accredited Professional, he served as a board member and secretary of the Kansas City Architectural Foundation, and he is an alumnus of the Centurions Leadership Program of The Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce. Cox also volunteers with organizations such as United Way, Harvesters, and the HIKE Reading Lab.  

“It is such an honor to oversee this region and the incredible teams who work here,” said Adam Cox, Midwest Region President. “Paul has done an excellent job leading the region over the past six years, so I have big shoes to fill, and I’m excited to take it on—particularly as we celebrate 100 years since JE Dunn’s founding. The region is in great shape with strong leaders across our offices and verticals. We have a bright future ahead of us.”

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We worked extensively with the owner and design team during the preconstruction phase to establish a construction budget and assist with keeping design within the budget parameters. JE Dunn also closely coordinated with the owner and design team for scheduling and installation of owner-provided materials and equipment.

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The main housing unit for inmates consists of 12 pods with 56 beds in each. Inmates on work release or work jobs inside the jail itself will be housed in four dorm-style pods with 24 people in each, and a second dorm of four pods with 50 beds each. The dorm style housing is a cost-effective approach to increase bed count. The building includes 16 video court booths, a dedicated space for inmates to attend virtual court hearings, which alleviated a budget concern of Greene County to bus inmates to their downtown courts.

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From converting empty shell space in the hospital tower all the way to giant tents in the parking lot and possible existing parking garage space, the team walked through a variety of options and ultimately landed on using the fifth-floor shell space. “We walked the facility with the team to determine what not only worked best, but also to get an idea of timeline for each option,” said Senior Project Manager Mike Trehey. “Ultimately, it was determined that utilizing the existing shell space would serve more patients and be the best option for the facility’s staff.”

Once the team decided to move forward with converting the shell space, we took existing site conditions and dropped them into a floor plan and determined that we could accommodate 51 ICU beds in a ward setting, each with a dedicated headwall. Because of the speed and urgency of the project, the team worked from a floor plan rather than architectural drawings, creating some unique planning challenges. “Work literally changed by the hour, as everything was very fluid,” said Trehey. “We huddled with doctors, nurses, engineering, IT, and other groups every morning to determine the plan for that day—and that was bound to change as the day progressed. It wasn’t uncommon to change course while someone was swinging a hammer, as we were all working in real time.”

Outfitting the space with headwalls, beds, and other equipment was not the only piece of the puzzle; systems required upgrading and the easy transmission of the virus had to be considered as well. In addition to upgrading the existing mechanical system and bringing medical gases into the space, the team installed exhaust fans on the roof to create a negative environment to prevent infectious diseases from getting outside of the Covid unit and potentially migrating to other sections of the hospital. “The project required extra considerations due to how easily COVID-19 is transmitted. The ICU space itself was set up in a ward-style layout, but we also incorporated hand-washing stations and specialized group work rooms, staff showers, PPE station, soiled rooms, etc. where they could wash off and leave contaminated materials before exiting the unit,” said Trehey.

From start to finish, the project took 14 calendar days to complete, but this would have been impossible without buy-in from the State of Missouri and the City of Springfield. The city assigned the project a dedicated inspector who came first thing in the morning and again each afternoon, allowing the team to make immediate adjustments if necessary to keep things progressing quickly. “The frequency of the inspections was integral to completing this project so quickly,” said Trehey. “The effort and collaboration between the hospital, trade partners and the work of all the men and women who helped make this happen was impressive as well.”

Together, the team installed more than 30,000 lineal feet of electrical wire; 40,000 feet of low-voltage cable; and over 6,000 lineal feet of medical gas piping—all braised, pressure tested, and certified within that 14-day timeframe. CoxHealth CEO Steve Edwards walked the project with Missouri Governor Mike Parson, who repeatedly praised the hospital for its efforts and emergency response. The governor mentioned that seeing the team build the new ICU in a matter of weeks confirmed in his mind that the state had a fighting chance against the outbreak. “I think it gave us all relief. That was one of those ‘wow’ moments,” said Parson. Hospital staff and project team members shared that wow moment and admiration for the team that worked together to keep the community safe. Trehey shared, “The numbers and turnaround time are impressive, but the fact that most of the work was done at cost or with donated materials is a testament to the amazing partners and their commitment to the community.”

Allina Health 
The leadership of Abbott Northwestern Hospital, part of Allina Health, along with their emergency planning teams recognized early on that the approach would be outside the normal process in that what would normally take weeks, if not months, of planning had to transpire as quickly and safely as possible to prepare their facility spaces. To achieve this, Allina Health in Minnesota took a different approach at the hospital to prep for the COVID-19 surge, though the end goal was the same—more ICU-capable rooms in a rapid timeframe. Like the response from other health systems nationwide, the response had to be swift and it had to incorporate plans for multiple facilities while following guidelines to keep staff and patients safe. Abbott Northwestern Hospital already had multiple major construction projects underway and recognized that it was necessary to re-allocate the expertise and resources of the general contractors and subcontractors to shift their focus to the virus response. Along with their in-house facility staff and engineer consultants, their project management team engaged construction partners to implement the quickly developed plans, schedules, and budgets to add additional ICU and Medical Surgical room capacity and modify the HVAC systems to provide negative airflow to protect our medical staff and patients.

The team started early March the 642-bed facility was equipped with 74 ICU rooms with 17 set up for negative isolation, so rather than convert new space or erect temporary overflow, Allina elected to outfit current rooms with the proper equipment and setup. Starting with 12 rooms in one of the octagon-shaped pods of the West Main Building, the team began by running new critical power electrical circuits and making aluminum window panels where they hooked up negative HEPA filter air machines and exhausted filtered air directly to the outside. “In addition to upgrading materials to prevent further infection, each room required pressure sensors at the door,” said Superintendent Jim Schneider. “We made each room negative pressure as well as the main core area to prevent any contaminated air from circulating to other areas of the hospital.”

From initial meeting to review options to conversion of 12 rooms, the first project took 8 calendar days. The team then moved on to the Piper Building to transform 30 more rooms. “The floor was set up as five different six-bay pods,” said Schneider. “We went one by one to make the rooms negative pressure and ICU capable. In a matter of 6 weeks, we converted 144 rooms in 4 different buildings —100 ICU with negative pressure and 44 negative pressure rooms for testing.”

While crucial to handing an influx of patients, the rooms were not the only areas that required preparation. The emergency department located in the Heart Hospital had nine negative pressure rooms, so the team added eight more, nearly doubling their capacity for intake in the ED. In addition, the team converted conference rooms near the main lobby to negative pressure areas. “They will use the main lobby as a triage overflow corridor to get to the overflow triage rooms. JE Dunn will install Starc wall panels to separate the main lobby area that will be used as a Covid corridor from the rest of the main lobby with negative pressure. “So the public is always protected,” said Schneider.

Using a measured approach not only allowed the team to methodically equip each area based on their needs, but it also allowed trade partners and the client to determine a plan of action quickly. “These projects were unprecedented in both their speed as well as process,” said Project Manager Matthew Ecklund. “That speaks to the importance of our trade partners as well as the client, because we can’t do this alone; their trust and willingness to approve the plan are why we were able to complete these projects as fast as we did while following guidelines for infection prevention during construction and turning over spaces that improve safety and outcomes for patients and staff.”

The Ranch 
Building out shell space and converting current space are generally the best solutions in existing healthcare facilities when anticipating census increases, but when faced with all regional healthcare facilities potentially being over capacity, the US Army Corps of Engineers needed a statewide solution. In need of overflow space and in anticipation of the need for COVID – 19 care exceeding Colorado’s existing number of hospital beds, the Army Corps of Engineers began exploring empty buildings in the region for suitability to build an Alternate Care Facility.  They decided to convert The Ranch Events Complex in Loveland, Colo., a multi-facility complex that supports everything from AHL Hockey and rodeos to concerts, 4-H competitions, and car shows into a 1,600-bed temporary care facility for ambulatory COVID-19-positive patients. They opted to use the First National Bank exhibit halls, McKee 4-H building, indoor horse arena, and rodeo pavilions. The indoor arena came complete with the dirt floor—called footing—which presented one of the first challenges of removing the footing and pouring a new concrete floor.

When tasked with responding to an RFP in 24 hours requiring a proposed team, labor rates, and a technical approach, AECOM teamed up with JE Dunn, Apollo Mechanical, and Encore Electric to submit a proposal for the Army Corps of Engineers. “Once we were awarded the project, the team had 24 hours to mobilize onsite with the core team to commence work,” said Vice President Jason Oltman. “We walked the site with representatives from the Corps and approximately 50 individuals from AECOM, JE Dunn, and our trade partners and immediately started putting a plan in place to install 1,600 care units in 21 days.” The Corps of Engineers’ initial assessment outlined a narrative of bed space requirements including complete medical gas system, nurse call, clean storage, pharmacy space, resuscitation rooms, staff and patient restroom and shower facilities, all requiring emergency power back up. “Our team went from introductions in the parking lot on a Thursday morning to working hand in hand on a design/build plan that afternoon; I have never seen anything like it.”

The first task was to remove the dirt floor in the arena and prep it for concrete. Larimer County and employees of The Ranch removed four inches of the footing for storage and replacement on the first day. Upon removal of the footing, the team poured a 60,000-square-foot concrete slab on grade; almost 900 cubic yards in two days. “We made a phone call on Friday and had a concrete crew, pouring that Saturday and Sunday of Easter weekend.” Room layout and material procurement started immediately with all racing to acquire building materials before the holiday weekend. With the leadership of the Corps of Engineers, a fully integrated and collaborative design process, and hard work from the team and skilled trades, nearly 200 beds were approaching substantial completion by the following Thursday in the First National Bank exhibit halls after just one week of design and construction time.

With the ongoing evaluations of the state healthcare system’s ability to accommodate the impeding surge of COVID -19 patients, it was decided to hold the project to 400 beds, reduced from the original 1,600. Although an accelerated and unconventional project, the team was still able to fine tune the headwall prefabrication process and was on track to complete all 1,600 beds when the scope was reduced.  The Corps of Engineers and the construction team stands ready to complete additional beds, which will hopefully never be necessary. “In a strange time when we define work to be essential or not, this really felt essential,” said Oltman. “It’s the first time in my career I have ever built something that I hope never has to be used.”

SLAC 
The COVID-19 pandemic forced companies and owners to quickly determine contingency plans as a reaction to the impending crisis. One, however, switched gears to join the fight as part of the solution. When many construction projects had been shut down in the state of California, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory reallocated resources to help. The Department of Energy asked SLAC to perform research studying how cells react with COVID-19 proteins to better understand the virus at hand.

In order to use the new technology, some existing systems required an upgrade. “The current arrangement would not support the specified of equipment the lab was getting, so we had to upgrade the electrical infrastructure to power the instruments,” said Project Engineer Sam Hughes. Scoped and priced in three days, the team mobilized immediately and completed the vital project in three weeks. “We’re extremely proud to team up with an institution like Stanford to support research of this global pandemic,” said General Superintendent Scott Pashman. “Understanding how this virus works is essential to finding a cure that will ultimately save lives, so it’s very rewarding to be involved in such an important undertaking for the sake of public health.”

Prepared for the Future
Though different, all responses have a common undertone—dedication to communities and a commitment to getting through the crisis together. The pandemic hit the US quickly, but the response was equally as fast and impressive thanks to the resolve of owners and contractors, leaving a more prepared health system in its wake.

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