Froedtert Advanced Care Center overcomes plan changes, weather

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Change might be a good thing.

But that doesn’t mean it’s not difficult.

Just ask the team behind the new Advanced Care Center at Froedtert Hospital and the Medical College of Wisconsin.

When the 608,000-square-foot center’s plans were approved, it was to have four levels above grade and three levels of underground parking.

“That’s where it started,” said Jeff Gruhn, general manager of health care at Mortenson Construction, which oversaw the construction of the $142 million project.

The very next day, Gruhn’s team was asked to add a fifth floor to the building — with no additional money or leeway in the construction schedule.

“So right away on Day 1 we were over-budget,” Gruhn said. “That was our very first challenge.”

As the construction of footings and foundations began, the project owners asked to explore the possibility of building another four floors — still with no change to the scheduled completion date.

“They built this building to move programs out of the way so we could start on a major surgery platform renovation, so the timing of that was absolutely critical for them from a revenue standpoint,” Gruhn said.

To make it work, Gruhn and his colleagues put in a temporary roof layer inside the building, allowing crews to continue working on the floors below at the same time that the shell and core were put in for the four additional floors.

And, Gruhn said, “We started this project during one of the most challenging winters on record. That’s when we were bringing this building out of a hole in the ground.”

They lost time on the front end. But the center, which houses the Heart and Vascular Center and Transplant Center and gives surgery patients a new entrance, opened on time in October 2015.

“We had our challenges but we met our original schedule,” Gruhn said.

In fact, he added, “We actually were able to get that additional floor incorporated with no budget or schedule relief.”

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