Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU | Richmond, VA

Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU committed to see their first patient in spring 2023, an aggressive timeline with only a stacking diagram and square footages at that point. From that diagram, the team developed a cost model in 2/2019, and two months later a GMP released the demolition, earthwork, and excavation scopes and the team broke ground.

Only 601 days after inception, a final GMP was approved. This was achieved through early collaboration, timely decisions, and engagement of key trades. Simultaneously $73M of work was completed on the site.

Photo: ©Garrett Rowland

The building footprint was designed up to the property line at ground level, with levels 2-13 cantilevering over the property line at the busiest pedestrian intersection on campus. DPR provided continued wayfinding, maintained traffic flow, and kept pedestrians and workers safe while the adjacent facilities were fully operational.

For the construction of the superstructure, the team only had one option, place the cranes on the top of the existing building. The solution incorporated the tower crane steel base structure into the final building steel of the building expansion limiting rework. This required upgrading columns and bracing beams on the floor below, extending 10 columns 25-ft. above the existing roof, horizontal I beam bracing, and diagonal tube steel bracing.

Challenged with limited laydown and staging areas, the team prefabricate significant scopes. With 72 identical patient rooms, the team designed and constructed the head walls off-site with framing, med-gas, electrical and wood blocking in a panelized wall system. The team then installed the head walls and connected the overhead piping to the in-wall piping. With rooms back-to-back one prefabricated wall accommodated two patient rooms. While the fully prefabricated option was a higher cost initially, the onsite labor savings and material storage, and quality offset this and made it the best value for the project.

Given the complexity of the project and the timeline to complete, it was paramount that the teams collaborate early. The design and construction teams were integrated, worked as one in a Big Room environment, and employed target value delivery (TVD). Cluster teams met regularly to advance the design, explore alternative designs, plan the construction, and innovate solutions to achieve the build on a tight site, on an active healthcare campus, and through a pandemic finding solutions to minimize disruptions to the patients and community and expedite the schedule.

The project embraced model-based visual planning and production management. This enabled the team to visualize, validate, and communicate plans accurately. Quality was enhanced by engaging trade partners and DPR’s self-perform teams early in the planning and VDC coordination process. Work was coordinated months in advance, so when it came time to build, they could focus completely on the quality and craftsmanship.

By linking the schedule to the model, the team identified improperly sequenced logic and made necessary adjustments, minimizing potential delays and maximizing efficiency.

Utilizing VDC and field technology enabled work to be completed to the exact specification of the Digital Building Components’ prefabricated exterior metal and curtainwall panels, meeting their ½-in. tolerances for the concrete slab edge. A laser scan detected several deviations in the formwork, allowing for adjustments and eliminating costly rework.

To manage the quality of the work on the project, the team identified Distinguishing Features of Work (DFOW), managed by a cluster team. They developed measurable acceptance criteria for each item. During constructability reviews details were scrutinized to ensure they matched the criteria. All of this is leading to our goal of zero rework!

In addition, first-in-place mock-ups were used to review the quality for repetitive scopes—Nurse Care Stations and Patient Rooms. Mock-ups allowed adjustments to be made, providing the ability to remedy problems and avoid rework.

The team delivered 26 estimates, 9 design-assist packages, 72 bid packages through 10 cluster teams. Nearly $6.7M of scope was added to the project bringing the final costs within 2.0% of the final GMP. The team innovated throughout construction and returned $5M to the client.

Photo: ©Garrett Rowland

Prefabricated metrics:

• 72 patient room headwalls with fully roughed-in MEP systems
• Four stories of exterior curtainwall panels installed in 15 days compared to 40 days
• 85% of labor hours removed from site
• Rework of MEP openings reduced from 20% to less than 5%

Prefabrication ensured the highest quality of work. Elements were digitally fabricated directly from the construction model, providing a streamlined and efficient construction process.

Photo: ©John Baer, Building Images Photography

There were 83 trade partners engaged in the project, with over 380 craft on-site daily. SWaM contractors account for 54% of the project by count or 28.3% by contract volume.

Photo: ©Garrett Rowland