Boston Children’s Hospital Construction uses ‘cardboard city’ to aid in design of new clinical tower

Boston Children’s Hospital Construction

Boston Children’s Hospital, ranked #1 Best Children’s Hospital by U.S. News, is in the process of designing a new 11-story clinical tower at its Longwood Medical Area campus. In addition to the new tower, the $1.5 billion expansion calls for renovating other Longwood properties and adding outpatient beds to the clinic in Waltham.

Designing the new tower is quite challenging. With the high cost of real estate, every inch of space is critical. To aid in the design of the new tower, Shepley Bulfinch, the firm designing the building, created a 40,000 square-foot “cardboard city” mock-up. Although the firm has used “cardboard cities” in the past, this is the first time doctors and nurses ran simulations of medical scenarios. This set-up allowed clinicians to move the walls, doorways, and equipment around while considering details such as which way the patients would face or where to place trays of surgical tools. Although the cost of the cardboard city and running 3 days of simulations totaled $75,000, the hospital said the cost was small compared to the benefits of an efficient space. Read the full story here.

Subcontractors interested in bidding on this project are encouraged to consider utilizing cloud-based project management software as a tool to track field activities via iPads, phones or other tablets. Streamlining communication between the field and office through the use of mobile devices and cloud-based project management has proven to increase efficiencies and optimize profits on large construction projects. For more information, click here.