The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

St. Francis to break ground on $200 million tower
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=17&articleid=20110928_17_A1_CUTLIN293882

by: SHANNON MUCHMORE World Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
9/28/2011 7:39:55 AM

St. Francis Health System will break ground this week on an eight-story, $200 million patient tower and trauma center at its main campus.

The 500,000 square-foot project on the west side of campus at 61st Street and South Yale Avenue is 10 percent renovation and the rest new construction. It will include an emergency center, intensive care and surgery rooms and two helicopter pads. The construction will also replace the chapel and renovate the main lobby.

Completion date is expected for the summer of 2014.

As the aging population grows, more trauma care will be needed, St. Francis CEO and President Jake Henry said. Assuming federal health care reform mandates for insurance coverage go into effect in 2014, more people overall will be receiving care.

The hospital has looked at expanding its emergency care capability since 2002, he said.

"We think it's good for the community," Henry said. "We think it's going to give us the flexibility for what we know will happen."

It is the most expensive building project in St. Francis history and one of the largest investments the city has seen since 2003, hospital officials said.

Lynn Sund, senior vice president and chief nurse executive, said the new emergency center will make St. Francis capable of having a Level I Trauma Center, the highest certification available. It is currently Level II. The only Level I facilities in the state are in Oklahoma City.

Read More: http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=17&articleid=20110928_17_A1_CUTLIN293882


(http://www.tulsaworld.com/articleimages/2011/20110928_NE-SFtrauma0928.jpg)

This tower will be highly visible from Yale.  It will be right on top of where they have just finished the extensive landscaping/retaining walls, to the north of the new parking garage.

Another rendering
(http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6171/6192056183_28a5afa282_m.jpg)

How many floors does it take for a building to become a "tower"?

Good for this $2 million/year Henry guy but without Cooper this project couldn't get to first base. The place has started to take on real curb appeal...if we could just get them to pay for the curb instead of those of us paying taxes covering the constant street work around the campus. And it would be nice if they contributed their "profit" to neighborhood schools as well since they avoid that too.....

Where they going to find the additional employees?

Do you think they are building new spick and span to get rid of the Mursa situation?

Nice, a large cathedral sanctuary and a convent too. Dark ages? No mosque?

It would have been nice had they announced a holistic center with a nutritional cafeteria and center for obesity....but that might defeat their partnership with big pharma and the purpose of life extension. Wouldn't expect any family planning areas either....

No mention of floors.  Just taller than its diameter.

A skyscraper has to be a certain amount of floors I think.


I have a tower under my desk though.

*spit-take*

uh-thank-ya

(http://www.featurepics.com/FI/Thumb300/20101008/Man-Sharpening-Axe-Grinding-Stone-1665625.jpg)

Is it still going to be pink?  At this late date, I don't want to have to re-learn a name for the "pink hospital out south".

Bad enough that it really isn't "out south" anymore....

I refer to it as that "pink hospital up north".
 
 ;D

The non-glass parts are still pink in the renderings.

Wow, those renderings look sharp!

And I hope it always stays pink. Medical companies around the country refer to it as the "Pink Palace."

Yes it will be pink.  The warren foundation has rights to enough of that horrible marble...

A sky scrapper must be 12 stories.

A tower has no height requirement.

And aox... no.

Actually a "Highrise" is a minimum of 12 stories and or approx 115'

A Skyscraper can fall under two different definitions.
    1.  Informal... A building that is significantly taller than any other building in an area and that dominates its surroundings.  This is a very general definition applicable in limited circumstances like say a small city or town that doesn't have any "true" skyscrapers.  The Price Tower, at 221', in Bartlesville would be an example. While its not a skyscraper under the "formal" definition, in its context it can still be called a skyscraper.
    2.  Formal... A building with a minimum height of 100 meters (approx 325') or approx 25 floors.  

So a skyscraper can be called a highrise, but not all highrises are skyscrapers.

  The reason you can't use a specific number of floors is because the average floor height can vary from 10' and 12', especially in older buildings, to each floor being 15' or more in newer buildings (usually to have a section that accommodates modern heating and air ducts, fiber optics, sprinkler systems, electrical, etc.) and first floor lobbies that can easily reach 50' but would still count as 1 floor.  For instance though the Cityplex Tower has more floors, the BOK tower is actually taller.  

  Devon Tower in OKC is now the tallest Skyscraper in Oklahoma at 850'.  Which would be about the same height as placing the Petroleum Club tower on top of the BOK tower.  Though Devon is the tallest in Oklahoma, it would rank as about the 150th tallest in the world.  With the tallest in the world being the 2,715' tall Burj Khalifa.

  With the advent of more and more skyscrapers of 300m or approx 1,000 feet tall and up, there is now a new classification of "Supertall".

Just an fwi lol.

So currently the only highrise (by definition) going up in Tulsa is the Cimarex Tower downtown. 

This building at St. Francis will add to the mini-skyline in that area that is clearly visible from the Yale exit at I-44, and from higher elevations to the west (especially on top of Turkey Mtn).  The new 8 story towers at Montereau have also added to that, mainly because they are on the hill so they are actually taller than the St. Francis buildings.

From what I understand, the only reason St. Francis became a Level 2 trauma center was because it did not meet all the qualifications for maintaining their Level 1 when they had it...by that, I mean they were required to have certain staff available when they needed it at all times and within a certain time frame. I think it was an issue with the neurology or anesthesia department having docs who were not willing to be available in addition to losing a few docs. Again, this is just what I heard from people that use to work there. I think their emergency room (or "Trauma Emergency Center" as they like to call it) is more than capable of handling any type of trauma or disaster-related events. One thing they need to update is the old parking garage on the East end of the campus. The cramped spaces have evidence of vehicles scraping on the walls, pillars, and turns.

And teaclowntown, I would not be so worried about MRSA. Every time hospitals discharge an isolation patient with MRSA, the room is decontaminated. In essence, we all have MRSA since the bug is opportunistic and I think most hospital docs will tell you the same thing. Most hospitals require a nasal swab for MRSA during admission as a standard operating procedure since if you acquire MRSA in the hospital, insurance is less likely to cover for it. Therefore, if the hospital proves you had it before you came in, their butts are covered. In addition, if you've ever had a history of MRSA, you're put on isolation precautions anyway regardless of whether or not you actively have it. This makes the situation look much worse than it really is. In this day and age, unless I had an open wound in the hospital, I would be much more worried about C. diff than MRSA...it is highly contagious and hard to clean. You can kill MRSA simply by using a germicidal alcohol wipe. The only way to kill C. diff is high heat and bleach wipes. And C. diff can live on surfaces for weeks and even months.

I think pretty much everyone has MRSA on them at one time or another.  (Kind of like brown recluse spiders - everyone has them in their house whether they know it or not).  We have 6 people in the family that have had it at one time or another - some more than once.  5 of them needed hospitalization, and one got surgery to remove the lesion, and one was in hospital for about 6 weeks!  Yucky stuff!!


And that pink has kind of grown on me over the decades, so would hate to see it go.  Kind of like the Blue Whale - it has become an icon.

I hate the pink, in the sense of color choice. But if they ever get rid of it I will be sad, because I agree, it has become iconic.

Tower crane is up.  Since this is one of the biggest projects U/C in Tulsa I think it deserves a sticky.  I'll take some pics when it's further along.

I also think it is the best looking project currently under construction. I'm very excited to see this building come up.

This project has a webcam (http://www.manhattanconstructiongroup.com/manhattan-construction/projects/webcams/saint-francis-hospital-trauma-emergency-center-renovation-and-expansion-webcam) for any of you interested in watching the progress.

Edit: there are actually three camera angles to view.  

Two tower cranes now.

  There is also an image up of the new bank building going up across the way.  If they ever put in the shopping development there on the corner all of this will really start to make that area feel quite nice.

I don't see what the hold up is...or why a couple of anchor stores would not want to locate on that corner.