Neighbors, employees and patient families can look forward to the streets around Seattle Children’s becoming easier and more comfortable to travel. After gathering and evaluating information for more than a year, we completed the final report for our Livable Streets Initiative. It paves the way for building five projects this year – including a new traffic signal at 40th Ave. NE and Sand Point Way NE and a bidirectional cycle-track with separate paths for bikes and pedestrians along our frontage with Sand Point Way NE. Read full post »
Livable Streets Initiative Moving Forward
Turning Gray Roofs Green
Many natural elements are being incorporated into the Building Hope expansion, not only for healing and aesthetic purposes, but also for environmental friendliness and sustainability.
A feature starting to take shape on the new expansion are the “green” roofs… which are literally roofs covered in vegetation. Read full post »
Waldo’s Fun Fast Factoids
Hi Waldo fans! If you like to play trivia games and guess about how things work — like how much, how big, how many, how long, how far and how heavy — I have a fun list for you! See if you can guess some answers to these fun questions about the construction site:
• Are there any construction jobs that women can’t do?
No, women can do any of these same jobs that men can do! Anyone who has the right training can do the work. Women are just as good at it as men, too.
• How many days will it take to make the new hospital building before it’s ready to open (from start of construction to end of construction)?
482
• How many hours of work will it take to make the new building, start to finish?
800,000
• How many tons of dirt were moved to prepare the construction site?
34,272
• How many gallons of water does the water pond hold?
40,000 Read full post »
NE Seattle Greenways Group Kicks Off
On Saturday, Feb. 18, more than a dozen people gathered in a coffee shop near University Village to organize for the creation of ‘greenways’ on their neighborhood streets.
Greenways are quiet neighborhood streets that have been improved to lower speeds, reduce traffic and make a trail-like experience for walkers and bicyclists of all ages. Many cities throughout the country have invested in greenways, most famously Portland, OR where it is almost impossible to bike or walk around without being drawn into one of these quiet, low-traffic streets by the signs and pavement markings that seem to call out to you every few blocks. Read full post »
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Mock Patient Room
Guest Blog from Todd Johnson, VP Facilities
It has been exciting to see the exterior work on the building begin and interior construction is starting to take shape. I spent some time over the past month working with our construction and internal teams to create a ‘mock’ patient room. Until now we have only been able to use cardboard and tape to develop what we believe will create an optimal patient experience and new model of care. It has been great to see a real room take shape. Read full post »
Floating Bridges in the Sky?
You may have noticed the sky bridge currently under construction that is connecting the existing building to the Building Hope expansion across five floors. Designing it was a challenge for a variety of reasons: the slope Seattle Children’s is built on; creating fire lane access below the sky bridge; working around multiple underground utilities; and accommodating very different earthquake movements of the two connected buildings.
After considering many options, it was determined that the best solution was to design the sky bridge as a floating structure, with joints at each floor level between the adjacent buildings. The design also incorporates a sloped steel truss that allows the eastern half of the sky bridge at each floor level to hang from a pair of diagonal columns.
Exterior Work Begins
This week work begins on many of the major components of the exterior of the building. Crews will begin to install the natural stone shingles, metal window frames and glass, and ribbed metal panels. Later this year work will begin on installation of the frosted glass awnings and the orange, green and blue colored glass fins.
Special Fraco lifts will be used to help workers safely move up and down the building and also allows them to move side-to-side as they work on installation of the exterior components. In recent years Fraco lifts have become a popular alternative to scaffolding and create safer work environments and efficiency in installation. Read full post »
Additional Vacuum Truck Work Today
Work continues this morning, March 5th in the fire lane with a ‘vacuum truck’. The truck will then move over to the Hartmann site around noon to do similar work.
Vacuum trucks suck up dirt in a cylindrical fashion so that concrete footings for light poles can be set and poured. This is the safest way to do this work with critical hospital utilities in the area and should result in less vibration. However, the trucks vacuum can be noisy – so we appreciate your patience as this work takes place. Read full post »
Vacuum Truck on Friday, March 2
On Friday, March 2, we will be completing necessary work in the fire lane with a ‘vacuum truck’. Vacuum trucks suck up dirt in a cylindrical fashion so that concrete footings for light poles can be set and poured. This is the safest way to do this work with critical hospital utilities in the area and should result in less vibration. However, the trucks vacuum can be noisy – so we appreciate your patience as this work takes place. Read full post »