The first project built under an integrated project delivery method in Nebraska and one of the largest IPD projects in the U.S., the owner, architect and the construction manager worked collaboratively on the Hubbard Center through design and preconstruction to provide real-time estimating that saved $50 million and reduced the schedule by 40 days.

Under the IPD agreement, the owner still created criteria for the $450-million project, but the design and construction teams worked together to develop the drawings as a singular unit. As parts of the building were designed, the construction team evaluated drawings to determine if there were more cost-effective options. The team co-located on site during the project, allowing for real time discussions between design and construction partners. The IPD strategy allowed the team to begin construction prior to submitting its final bid package for interior fit-out and final work.

“Everyone had skin in the game, including us as owners,” Dr. Richard Azizkhan, Children Hospital’s former CEO, said in a statement. “What IPD did was choreograph the whole building process so that there was no rework. It was all planned out very carefully and it ended up saving about 30% in construction time and about 20% on the overall cost of construction.”

Along with Children’s Hospital, HDR served as architect and engineer under the agreement, and Kiewit Building Group served as construction manager. The project broke ground in October and completed in August 2021.

Photo courtesy of Dave Schwalm/HDR

The 427,000-sq-ft expansion features an emergency department, seven new operating rooms, an imaging center, newborn intensive care unit, pediatric intensive care unit and 100 inpatient rooms. The nine-story building includes a rooftop helipad, an elevator machine level and a seven-story 765-vehicle parking garage with a separate ambulance garage.

The building has a nine-story structural steel frame with concrete slabs on metal deck, which sits on drilled pier foundations with concrete pier caps, grade beams and an isolated concrete slab on grade. A unitized curtain wall envelope is tied into the existing hospital and specialty pediatric clinic on seven floors.

At the steel fabricator’s suggestion, the structural team redesigned the beam-to-column web connections, allowing the beams to swing into place without tipping out the columns. The strategy saved significant time for erection. The combined team also delivered the steel mill order six months earlier than scheduled, which locked in pricing and mill schedules, saving another $500,000.

Photo courtesy of Dave Schwalm/HDR

The steel structural system had 40 connections to existing buildings on the south and west. Under the schedule, crews set more than 700 pieces of steel 6 in. from existing glass curtain wall during extreme winter conditions with no damage to existing glass or disruptions to patient care. The steel floor framing design allowed the existing exterior walls to remain in place until the new hospital tower was enclosed.

“Our team took the time to interact with patients and their families,” says Bryan Nielsen, health care principal at HDR. “We’d wave to them in their windows because we’re building right up against an existing hospital.… It was a meaningful project.”