The 20-story Gonda Building, designed to accommodate the next century of medical advances, will receive an ‘Honorable Mention’ Vista Team Award from the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) in March. The awards recognize teamwork in the design and construction of the built healthcare environment.
The design and construction team consisted of Ellerbe Becket, Cesar Pelli & Associates, Centex Rodgers Construction Company and the Mayo Facilities staff. Ellerbe Becket served as master planner, architect/engineer-of-record and designer for all clinical and support areas. Cesar Pelli served as design consultant for the building exterior and public spaces and Centex Rodgers was the Construction Manager.
“This is one of the most successful and rewarding project experiences we have had,” said Ellerbe Becket Principal John Waugh. “The genuine project team partnership which maintained communications and resolved issues in a non confrontational manner has been outstanding.”
Located in the heart of the downtown campus, the Gonda Building is linked with the Mayo Building and Rochester Methodist Hospital, forming one of the largest interconnected medical facilities of its kind in the world, with more than 3.5 million sf. Waugh said this presented many design challenges such as linking to the 50 year old Mayo Building on 18 floors and to Rochester Methodist on eight floors while matching floor heights and allowing for independent building movement.
The Gonda team developed a highly flexible facility that allows for expansion, redesign and accommodation of the ever-changing healthcare delivery system. The building's flexible infrastructure, including structural, heating, ventilation and air-conditioning, electrical and communications services, materials handling and vertical circulation, provides a shell that allows for diverse clinical uses throughout each floor.
The support zones are located outside the functional areas to increase flexibility and allow changes in medical practice. The building's infrastructure has been designed with excess capacity to accommodate the building well into the future.
The Gonda project is the centerpiece of the most extensive building program in Mayo Clinic history. The subway and lobby levels of the new 1.5 million-sf Gonda Building opened in 2001 and nine additional floors of disease-specific patient care areas were completed and occupied sequentially during 2002 and 2003.
Vista Team winners will be listed in an upcoming issue of Today's Healthcare Engineer magazine and honored at ASHE's 2004 International Conference and Exhibition on Health Facility Planning, Design and Construction next month in Tampa, Fla.
For nearly 10 years, ASHE, in conjunction with the American Institute of Architects Academy of Architecture for Health (AIA/AAH), has presented the Vista Team Awards to more than 30 design and construction teams. The Vista Team Awards encourage, recognize and promote the value of the team approach to the successful execution of building projects.
An innovator since its founding in 1909, Ellerbe Becket is a leader in architecture, engineering and the construction industry with office locations worldwide. This is the fourth time in the last five years that Ellerbe Becket has received a national award for outstanding teamwork.
Contact: news@ellerbebecket.com
