McCarthy Building Companies Inc. announced that the Emory University Hospital Tower expansion has won Engineering News-Record (ENR) Southeast’s 2018 Best Projects in the healthcare category. The project was selected based on ENR Southeast’s criteria for overcoming challenges & teamwork, safety, innovation & contribution to the industry/community, construction quality & craftsmanship, and functionality of design & aesthetic quality.

The award-winning project includes more than 450,000 square feet of expanded patient care areas, which adjoins Emory University Hospital via a two-story bridge over Clifton Road. The new facility added 232 patient beds, including 48 critical care beds, as well as new space for imaging, a dialysis unit, inpatient pharmacy, food court and 500 additional underground parking spaces. 

Opened in summer 2017, the facility serves cancer patients, including surgical, medical oncology and bone marrow transplant patients, under the Winship Cancer Institute, the only National Cancer Institute–designated comprehensive cancer center in Georgia. Additionally, kidney, liver and pancreas transplant patients are treated in the new tower, further supporting Georgia’s most comprehensive organ transplant program.

“Emory is widely acknowledged as Atlanta’s top healthcare provider,” said Bobby Campbell, Senior Vice President and Atlanta Business Unit Leader of McCarthy Building Companies Inc. “The entire McCarthy team is proud to deliver a facility that provides expanded healthcare services to our community, improves the patient experience and allows Emory to expand upon its stellar reputation.”

Together, McCarthy worked together with the entire project team to overcome challenges on the project with advanced planning, communication and collaboration. The jobsite was located in the center of a 24/7 hospital campus including functioning surgical departments that could easily be disrupted by construction. The team worked closely with Emory to minimize disruption, including coordinated blasting, drilling, concrete pours and other noisy operations within the active campus. The team devised a system to blast rock when necessary each day at the same time based on input from surgical teams, so Emory’s staff could plan accordingly.

“From the planning stages through completion, McCarthy worked closely with us to coordinate the countless complex components of this project,” said David Pugh, Vice President of Facilities for Emory Healthcare. “This allowed for seamless collaboration and efficient execution, ensuring that our ability to provide high-quality patient care was never impacted.”

This project was also recognized for its adherence to safety procedures. McCarthy’s site-specific safety plan guided operations and project workers, as well as protected staff, physicians, patients and visitors as they maneuvered around an active job site. There were 2,159,798 total man-hours on the Emory project.

“As a partner of Emory Healthcare, our team recognizes the role the Tower Expansion project playes in shaping the future of the Emory campus by bringing together patients and care providers,” said Anna Forgey of BDR Partners. “Through collaboration with Emory, SmithgroupJJR, and the McCarthy, we were able to achieve the program requirements and maximize ROI, while creating an amazing facility that serves the goals of Emory University Hospital.”

ENR Southeast’s Best Projects award is an annual competition. This year, judges selected only 20 projects as the region’s best from nearly 90 award entries. McCarthy will be recognized at the ENR Southeast Best Projects awards ceremony in Orlando on November 1^st, 2018.