BIRMINGHAM, ALA. — Children’s of Alabama’s new $400 million, 760,000-square-foot Benjamin Russell Hospital for Children (BRHFC), has opened for patients. The hospital, which is the largest single medical facility expansion project in Alabama’s history, is located one block north of the existing facility in Birmingham. The completion makes Children’s of Alabama the third-largest pediatric hospital in the U.S. in terms of square footage. Children’s is also the state’s only freestanding pediatric hospital.
BRHFC is named after Alabama entrepreneur Benjamin Russell (1876-1941), whose grandson and grandson’s wife, Ben and Luanne Russell, recently provided a $25 million endowment to the hospital.
BRHFC’s opening allows Children’s to increase its licensed bed total from 275 to 332, with an additional 48 neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) bassinets. The combined bed/bassinet count ranks Children’s of Alabama in the Top 10 pediatric medical centers in the U.S. based on bed count.
The new hospital offers something new to Children’s: all-private rooms in critical care units. These rooms feature a sleeper sofa, large wardrobe, safe and a special patient education/entertainment system. The new hospital also offers private, acute care rooms that are 30 percent larger than the rooms in the existing Children’s building. Each patient floor offers a laundry room and a kitchen including a refrigerator, microwave and ice machine.
“We are delighted to open the doors of this magnificent facility to serve the children and families of Alabama. The beauty of the Benjamin Russell Hospital for Children, its advanced technology, its environmental aspects and its family-focused design all serve as a wonderful backdrop for the skill, knowledge and commitment of the healthcare professionals who work here to provide care every day,” says Mike Warren, president and CEO of Children’s of Alabama. “Our team is focused on one mighty mission: to provide the very best healthcare available to every child who walks through our doors. That is the true importance of this expansion.”
HKS Inc., along with partner Giattina Aycock Studio, designed BRHFC to achieve LEED certification. The 12-story property is the largest facility in Alabama to achieve LEED certification and the first hospital to do so in the state. Highlights of BRHFC’s green design include rooftop gardens, designated green spaces on campus, 140 bicycle racks and an irrigation system using condensate collected from air conditioning units.
KLMK Group was the project manager, and a partnership between Hoar Construction and KBR served as the construction manager. Doug Eckert, executive vice president of Hoar Construction, stated that the production team worked with the Birmingham Construction Industry Authority to involve the community in BRHFC’s development. By the end of construction, more than 100 local minority-owned and disadvantaged businesses were involved and thousands of local workers were employed.
“From the onset, and through the many hurdles associated with a large complicated construction project, the project team had a laser focus on achieving our primary objective, which was to fulfill our commitment to the owner — finish on schedule and within their required budget. After three challenging years, we were able to actually over deliver. The project completed on schedule and under budget. We absolutely credit this achievement to the collaboration of the entire project team,” says Bill McMahon, president and COO of KLMK Group.
Children’s of Alabama is a private, not-for-profit hospital that acts as the primary site of the pediatric medicine, surgery, research and residency programs at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
— John Nelson