Author Archives: Editor

Topping off a new University of Arizona landmark

The commemorative last steel beam was put into place recently at the University of Arizona Health Sciences Innovation Building project in Tucson, a world-class center designed to be the vanguard for inter-professional health professions education in the United States.

“We have experienced a tremendous evolution in the types of facilities we are building to accommodate today’s complex healthcare climate,” said Kitchell Contractors President Steve Whitworth. “Working on this facility extends our experience on hospitals and community health clinics to higher education, and we couldn’t be more pleased about contributing to the changing landscape on the University of Arizona campus.” Kitchell is the project’s general contractor.

The $165 million facility broke ground last year. Designed by Los Angeles-based CO Architects with Tucson-based Swaim Architects, the 10-story, 220,000-square-foot building is located on the west side of the Arizona Health Sciences Campus, north of the Bio5 building off East Helen Street and North Cherry Avenue. The project is envisioned to foster collaboration among multidisciplinary teams of students and faculty in all four colleges: medicine, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Classrooms can accommodate as many as 150 people in a flexible “flipped classroom” format, which prioritizes group work over lectures. The building also includes a special events space that allows for more than 1,000 people.

“We’re re-imagining medical education, merging new technology, innovative curriculum and leading-edge design to provide our students with the most comprehensive training, knowledge and resources they need to be successful, team-oriented health professionals,” said Leigh A. Neumayer, MD, MS, UA interim senior vice president for health sciences.

Scott Root named Business Journal Landmark Leader

The two biggest things impacting local construction are a lack of labor and getting jobs done quickly to save resources. Phoenix-based Kitchell has worked to solve these issues with a Lego-like technology for the construction process.

Heading up this outside-the-box process is Scott Root, director of virtual construction for Kitchell, a major builder of hospital and health care facilities. Kitchell’s technology is changing the traditional approach to constructing these types of projects, industry officials say.

In Tempe, Kitchell has developed a multi-trade prefabrication shop, dubbed the Kapture Group, where it builds many components of a project in an assembly-line like process in one centralized location that is then loaded on trucks for on-site completion.

The first part of this solution is using technology: 3-D modeling, animation, laser scanning and drones. This process creates the foundation for construction project to be precisely fabricated in one location before all the components are shipped to a job site.

The strategy helps solve several industry challenges, Kitchell leaders say. First, there is an acute shortage of workers to build construction projects. The prefab done by Kitchell allows them to complete jobs with fewer employees and creates additional efficiencies such as precise specs in a controlled atmosphere. Additionally, in the heat of the summer, especially in the Southwest, Kitchell’s 30,000-square-foot indoor prefab location gives workers a reprieve from the brutal heat.

Complete project design, project management and 3-D printing join Kitchell’s virtual reality studio and on-site build giving subcontractors and customers ease of use. Kitchell already has successfully built major projects using its Kapture process. Besides solving the employee shortage issue, Kapture increases the workflow of projects, which accelerates construction completion. Kitchell has used the process for large projects, including Phoenix Children’s Hospital’s emergency room expansion and major expansion projects for Phoenix-based Banner Health.