Twice as Nice

Expansion nearly doubles hospital's size

Columbia St. Mary's Hospital Ozaukee Campus Mequon

By Chris Thompson

A plan to expand and renovate Columbia St. Mary's Hospital Ozaukee Campus in Mequon nearly doubled its size.

The almost $28 million project added 115,000 square feet of space to the hospital and renovated another 44,000 square feet, said Scott Heberlein, who, with Cindy Finstad, was a project manager on the M.A. Mortenson Co. job.

"We not quite doubled it, but it was pretty close," said Heberlein.

But before any construction could begin, Heberlein said the Milwaukee-based Mortenson had to face the challenge of moving four acres of wetlands on the site.

"That, essentially, is where the new addition sits," he said. "We had to relocate that to satisfy the Department of Natural Resources."

Besides relocating the wetlands, Heberlein said Mortenson had to coordinate the shutdowns of water, gas and power to the existing facility without interrupting hospital operations.

The hospital, obviously, couldn't shut down while the project was under way. To accommodate that, Heberlein said the project was completed in phases — and that proved challenging at times.

"The renovation itself had numerous phases — kind of an inefficient way to do it," he said. "But we had to not shut it down."

Because of that, the project was lengthy.

"It was a pretty long project," he said. "The addition, including wetlands mitigation, was about 18 months."

Job well done

Project Name: Columbia St. Mary's Hospital Ozaukee Campus Location: Mequon Submitting Company: M.A. Mortenson Co., Milwaukee General Contractor/Construction Manager: M.A. Mortenson Co., Milwaukee Architect: Kahler Slater Architects, Milwaukee Engineer: Graef, Anhalt, Schloemer & Associates Inc., Milwaukee Owner: Columbia St. Mary's, Milwaukee Project Cost: $27.8 million Start Date: Summer 2000 Completion Date: December 2002

The work was extensive and included building a new emergency room and day-patient services area as well as new medical imaging space. The renovation included redoing the hospital's women's center, surgical space and the surgery locker rooms.

Despite the length of the project and its unique challenges, Heberlein said the job was very successful.

He said the hospital staff was very accommodating, helping work through what could have been difficult logistical problems.

"It was a very integrated team to work with," he said.

And Heberlein said the owner's vision — and Kahler Slater's ability to capture it with its design — make the finished hospital a project he's proud to have been a part of.

"One of the things I thought was nice about the project," he said, "is that it's definitely not a hospital-looking building. Their whole focus is customer care. They took that even to the exterior of the building."

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