Having been called ‘the crown jewel’ of Mendota, Ill., the new Mendota Community Hospital will readily accept future expansion and could anchor development of other health care-related services and facilities on the remainder of the 40-acre site.
The new hospital is a pronounced improvement over its 79,000-square-foot predecessor built in the 1940s. The 107,000-square-foot, acute-care facility equipped with state-of-the-art diagnostic technologies offers 25 private patient rooms, overnight sleeping accommodations for family members, four ICU rooms, surgery, lab, numerous specialty outpatient clinics, rehab, 24-hour emergency department, a heliport and a contiguous medical office building. The new facility is located on a 22-acre site and functions more efficiently in serving the more than 44,000 patients a year.
The structural steel package for the project demonstrates the Building Information Modeling and plant fabrication capabilities of Butler Manufacturing, Kansas City, Mo. The architectural floor layout required significant non-modular, nonaligned steel framing, with chevron type bracing. The skewed linear footprint instilled architectural definition across the frontage and was a response in part to the site usage. The entry, framed to support the space’s elevated arched roofline, presents yet another architectural detail not routinely associated with a project supplied by a metal building manufacturer.
Joseph P. Pyatek, AIA, Ballwin, Mo., served as the hospital’s planning and design consultant; Oculus Inc., St. Louis, was the project architect; and Phalen Steel Construction Co., Mendota, served as the general contractor.
Butler Manufacturing, www.butlermfg.com
