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UTAH CONSTRUCTION & DESIGN NAMES THREE MORE JACOBSEN PROJECTS FOR TOP CATEGORY HONORS
SALT LAKE CITY – Organizations which aim to thrive in Utah County for many years to come must be conscientious and ambitious about their long-term strategic planning – perhaps more so than anywhere else in the United States, considering that the county’s population is expected to double by 2050.
So when Intermountain Healthcare turned to Jacobsen Construction for one of its most daunting building projects ever – the Utah Valley Hospital campus replacement and expansion – Jacobsen knew that the quality of their work would have ramifications both intimate and enormous for the ever-growing patient base served by that essential facility.
Even amid the intricate challenges of expanding and restructuring a hospital without disrupting caregivers or patients, Jacobsen’s knack for exceeding client expectations carried the day. That was the conclusion of Utah Construction & Design, which awarded Jacobsen’s Utah Valley Hospital campus replacement and expansion on behalf of Intermountain as winner of overall Project of the Year in Utah for 2019. Jacobsen’s project leaders, as well as leaders from Intermountain and Omaha-based architectural firm HDR which designed the project, were presented with the award Tuesday at Utah Construction & Design’s annual awards breakfast at the Little America Hotel in Salt Lake City.
“We at Intermountain are so deeply committed to safety and quality and experience and affordability — making sure all of those components were embraced in this project was of paramount importance,” said Clay Ashdown, Vice President of Financial Strategy, Growth and Development for Intermountain, in a speech accepting the award. “And I just can’t thank those on stage and elsewhere enough for the collaboration and the commitment to successful execution of this project.”
A core component of the $330 million project was Jacobsen’s completion of a 12-story, 590,000 square-foot tower bringing together previously scattered health departments. Jacobsen also constructed a new 107,000 square-foot outpatient services building and significantly renovated the hospital’s existing outpatient space.
“There was a real need to clean up the hospital in terms of making it more efficient for the staff and the caregivers, but also just more intuitive for the patients who were showing up,” said Matt Radke, who was project manager at the hospital from 2013 to 2018 and is now Vice President of Construction at Jacobsen.
Amid all of that work, construction teams had to — at all times — be aware of the unique demands that accompany “building a hospital on top of a hospital, without disrupting a hospital,” Radke said.
“Everyone had a genuine focus on the outcome of the patient,” he said, and diligently carried out challenging logistical tasks required to minimize disruptions.
The end result of the complex project is a hospital campus that can now serve as the gold standard for world class patient care at Intermountain, according to Radke.
“Intermountain said, ‘Look, we need to think about how we’ll deliver care beyond just this project,’” he said. “Our tagline for the project was Defining the Future of Health Care, because they were going to rethink a typical patient room. … It really set a lot of standards for other (Intermountain) campuses because it was the project that was leading out.”
Utah Construction & Design said in a video presentation of the award that “it’s hard to quantify the incredible overall impact this project will have to the residents of Utah County for the next 50-plus years.”
The Utah Valley Hospital campus replacement and expansion wasn’t the only Jacobsen project to be honored at Tuesday’s awards breakfast. Jacobsen and VCBO Architecture were each recognized for completing the doTERRA Medical Clinic & Research Building (named best small healthcare project) and Utah State University Life Sciences Building (best higher education project). Jacobsen’s completion of the Woodward Park City resort was also named best private project over $10 million.
The doTERRA Medical Clinic & Research Building, at 37,500 square feet, is part of a larger transformation of the growing company’s facilities in Utah County that will improve the experience of customers and employees alike. It is a revolutionary new patient clinic that offers both assisted healing with essential oils and traditional medical services.
Mark Ringger, vice president of human resources and administration for doTERRA, said he was grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with Jacobsen’s people.
“I especially want to give thanks to our great partners, Jacobsen construction,” Ringger said “They’ve helped us build over a million square feet of space. I really appreciate their partnership and the relationships we have.”
The $45 million Utah State Life Sciences building, a 103,000 square-foot facility completed in the spring of 2019, hosts classes for students in more than 30 majors. Lorianne Bisping, architect with VCBO Architecture, called the project “a labor of love.”
“The really cool thing is this replaced an existing building that was demolished years prior and was structurally unstable,” Bisping said. “And it really gave them state of the art teaching and research labs, which is phenomenal.”
Woodward Park City, which celebrates its grand opening Dec. 14, is a lifestyle action sports complex that will add to Park City’s reputation as a destination spot for recreation. At Woodward, world-class pro athletes will provide progression-based coaching to promote safer learning and increased confidence. It’s not a typical mountain resort – it is one of only five similar lifestyle sports facilities in the entire world.
Michael Barille, executive director of POWDR, the adventure lifestyle company running the new facility, praised Jacobsen for working well with a logistically “very challenging site.”
“I really appreciate them for working through all those conditions with us to create a great project,” Barille said, adding that he was appreciative of “the great group of (subcontractors that Jacobsen) brought together to bring us to the finish line.”