Ohio State has resumed a $1 billion expansion of its medical center after officials called a hiatus over the summer to review plans and cut costs.
The revamped plan, which was unanimously approved by the university Board of Trustees on Friday, is estimated to save at least $50 million over the initial plan and create 10,000 full-time jobs in central Ohio by 2015, officials said. The expansion is the largest building project in university history.
The crowning jewel of the plan is a 17-story hospital tower to be built on 12th Avenue, near the current location of Means Hall. The tower will house a cancer hospital, critical care facility and office/research space.
Although plans for the massive expansion have been in the works since 2005, university officials recently called for a re-evaluation when projected costs rose above the budget cap.
“We’ve taken a break, and we are now ready to reactivate the project,” said Alan W. Brass, chair of the Medical Affairs Committee at a Board of Trustees meeting on Thursday. “Enormous work has been done in the last 90 days.”
After three evaluations, officials laid out a series of changes to the project. Rather than following the original plan for a twin-tower hospital with a mostly glass facade, officials and architects shifted to a single-tower design with an exterior that will aim to blend with existing brick buildings nearby.
The redesigned tower will cost less to operate, said Jay Kasey, chief operating officer of the university hospital system. He added that the tower will be easier to heat and cool, will have one central elevator shaft, and each patient room will offer a window.
While one of the financial goals of the project is to increase the medical center’s operating budget by nearly $1 billion, another major aim is to make the hospital more attractive to potential patients, officials say. By fiscal year 2017, they hope to increase inpatient admission at the hospital by 10,000 and increase outpatient treatment by 300,000.
To accommodate this rise in patient flow, the original plans for the project included the construction of a 10th Avenue parking garage. Officials opted to forgo that garage in favor of revising existing parking plans, a process that is already underway.
“Parking options have been greatly improved for our patients,” Kasey told trustees on Thursday.
Since the program was launched, the university has spent or committed $121.8 million, including $25 million allotted to complete a new floor in the Biomedical Research Tower on 12th Avenue.
Future projects for the expansion include the demolition of Cramblett Hall by Dec. 31, 2011, to make way for the tower, a magnetic resonance imaging facility, an expansion of the Ross Heart Hospital, and expanded office space. Crews have already begun demolishing the MRI building and Means Hall to make way for the tower.
The revised project also allows for the relocation of Cannon Drive, a main thoroughfare through the medical campus that offers access to Route 315. Moving the road off of the flood plain it sits on would open up 12 acres of land for new building sites and would allow “for a much better use of Cannon Drive as a north-south artery,” Kasey said, although officials did not specify where it would be relocated.
The plan to move Cannon Drive is among many possible projects that could be pursued if costs are lower than expected and the $1 billion budget cap is not met.
As the redesigned building plan was passed, officials lauded those who requested the re-evaluation of the project. Algenon L. Marbley, a trustee on the Medical Affairs Committee, said that if it weren’t for the work of leaders such as Leslie H. Wexner, chair of the Board of Trustees, the project could have “quickly devolved into a mess.” But thanks to the redesign, he said, “we have saved the university significant amounts of money.”
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