Kitchell tops out Banner outpatient cancer center

Construction of a new outpatient cancer center at the Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix campus recently reached its topping out milestone, marking placement of the last steel beam on the project.

“It’s an honor to have a role in Banner Health’s continued growth and expansion in Arizona,” said Kitchell Contractors President Steve Whitworth.

The three-story facility, located on the Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix campus at 9th Street and McDowell Road, takes the place of two buildings that previously occupied the space. The project consolidates radiation oncology, medical/surgical oncology and infusion therapy on the first floor, with two additional levels to accommodate future growth.

The project designer is HKS Architects and is built by Kitchell.

To date, the project incorporates:

• 4,610 yards of concrete or 18,670,500 lbs.

• 229,333 feet of rebar end-to-end or 43.5 miles

• 924,000-pounds of structural steel

Read the full story at AZBigMedia.com.

There’s something to be said for those who ascend mountains for fun: gutsy. Those who do it to take a picture with a Kitchell logo’d banner: smart and gutsy.

Paul and Wilson mountaintop.jpg

Bearing the Kitchell name (literally and figuratively), KCI Senior Project Engineer Wilson Leech and Project Manager Paul Jackson recently conquered the highest peak in Southern California, Mt. San Gorgonio. During their one-day hike they gained more than 11,000 feet and traversed 17-plus miles of steeply dipping thrust faults (if you don’t know what that means, ask them).

Paul sleeping mountaintop.jpg

“It was a tough hike, but the views from the top and exhausted satisfaction at the end made it all worth it,” said Paul.

Wilson explained the mountain as a massive block of quartz monzonite, which sits atop an ancient platform of Precambrian gneissic rocks, providing spectacular views.

Wilson Leech mountaintop.jpg

Wilson and Paul are working on a project together at SDSU (and are also apparently novice geologists), and collaborated on the following quote to commemorate their achievement, adapted from Thomas W. Higginson:

“Great men Kitchell Employee-Owners are rarely isolated mountain peaks; they are summits of ranges.”

Indeed we are.