The Love Family Women’s Center in Oklahoma City is a four-story facility with a fifth-floor mechanical penthouse located at Mercy Hospital’s campus and is dedicated to serving women’s health needs. The center offers new services for families and women of all ages. It significantly increases the hospital’s capacity to deliver babies by 40%. The center has 15 large labor and delivery rooms, seven antepartum rooms, 47 postpartum rooms, and three cesarean section rooms with pre- and post-operative recovery rooms. The center is equipped with a 24/7 staff of doctors.
A new elevator tower was designed and constructed to transport newborn babies in distress directly to the 5th floor Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of the existing hospital. The elevator tower is located between the existing hospital and the new women’s facility. This tall and slender structure was isolated from both the new and existing facilities with perimeter expansion joints. The elevator currently connects the lower 3 levels of the new women’s facility to the hospital’s existing 5th floor and has the capability to connect to the other hospital floors in the future.
There were several challenges the team overcame from a structural engineering perspective. One challenge encountered was with the new elevator foundation construction due to the presence of the existing hospital’s shallower existing foundations immediately adjacent to the elevator. Also, an existing tunnel between the hospital and the adjacent convent, which needed to remain operational, intersected the elevator at the lowest level. Another design challenge was limiting the lateral movement of the elevator against wind and seismic forces. Parts of the existing hospital exterior precast wall were removed to provide access into the NICU floor. During construction, it was discovered the existing hospital was “leaning” a few inches north toward the elevator tower. Because of this discovery, more existing precast concrete was removed to provide adequate clearance between the hospital and new elevator tower.
Nearly half of the $98 million project was funded by philanthropy, including a $10 million donation from the Tom and Judy Love family. The center provides a safe, warm, welcoming, and comfortable experience for families, with a design influenced by the input of physicians and nurses based on what is best for patients.
Number of Stories: 5
