KAI Design & Build receives Best Practice Awards

St. Louis — KAI Design & Build was recently honored with a pair of Construction Industry Best Practice Awards from the St. Louis Council of Construction Consumers (SLCCC) for its work on the Mike O’Callaghan Federal Medical Center at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev.; and the Mid Campus Center at Washington University School of Medicine and BJC HealthCare, St. Louis.

The SLCCC Best Practice awards recognize successful implementation of one or more of the 17 Best Practices validated by the Construction Industry Institute to improve cost, schedule and quality for construction projects. SLCCC members presented the awards during it the organization’s annual Awards Dinner Gala on March 6, 2017 at the Palladium in St. Louis.

KAI’s two winning teams included the Clayco/KAI Joint Venture, which received a “Best Practices Award in Constructability” for work on the Mid Campus Center at Washington University; and the KAI/United Excel team, which received a “Best Practices Award in Planning for Startup” for hospital realignment at the Mike O’Callaghan Federal Medical Center (MOFMC).

Mid Campus Center

Washington University School of Medicine and BJC HealthCare, as part of its Campus Renewal Project, constructed a 12-story office building on the former site of the Storz Building at their growing medical campus along Kingshighway and Forest Park Parkway in midtown St. Louis.

In a joint venture with Clayco, KAI provided general contracting services for the new 517,000-square-foot Mid Campus Center, which provides 40,000 square feet per floor, as well as a full basement and below-grade parking. It is located on Children’s Place, next to the Central West End Metrolink station and connects to other campus buildings through an elevated walkway system.

The $100 million Mid Campus Center consolidates medical offices currently housed at the Center for Outpatient Health, and medical school faculty and staff offices at other facilities. This relocation allows for more medical school faculty and clinic space, and also includes offices for BJC HealthCare, plus space for a security center, bookstore, cafe and conference rooms.

The Mid Campus Center was opened in December 2016, with move-in expected to be completed in early 2017.

Hospital Realignment MOFMC

This complex $94 million project encompassed more than 170,500 square feet of renovations across four floors in an operational hospital. United Excel Corporation was the prime contractor on the project; United Excel Design performed the architectural, interior and structural design; and KAI performed the MEP engineering, fire alarm/protection, communications and low-voltage work.

Space constraints, disjointed operations and an antiquated layout had resulted in poor functionality and inefficiencies at MOFMC, which was undersized for its mission and departments were forced to operate out of spaces not originally designed for the specific function.

The facility’s extensive renovation modernized the building, increased space efficiencies, developed functional space adjacencies between clinics, consolidated patient services, improved wayfinding, and enabled the accommodation of new technologies, evolving medical practices, staff increases and mission changes.

The project was delivered under the design-build initial outfitting delivery model. Considered the future of health care design, this model involves key multi-disciplinary participants throughout all phases of construction. Integrating all parties from the project’s start is reputed to help reduce risk, minimize uncertainties in design interpretation, create cost savings and lead to a shorter schedule.

Sustainable design concepts were also incorporated into the design, and the team is currently seeking a LEED Silver designation for the project, which was just recently completed.