Sorry, I meant the tunnel shown under 34th st (got the streets mixed up) I figured just the bridge would be fine....

How so?

Tell that to Penn:

http://www.facilities.upenn.edu/maps...tient-pavilion

http://www.philly.com/philly/busines..._building.html

Huh? :whatthefuck:

Penn wanted 700 new beds to meet demand. The type of consumer who seeks out Penn-level care also wants a private bed. Most, if not all beds, will be private. This was a market driven project.

The last I heard it was to replace some of the older buildings that make up "HUP". It has become costly to continue to upgrade some of the older buildings. I doubt Silverstein, Ravdin and Rhoads go anywhere.

100% true, while they were planning patient preferences was at the forefront. One of the reason they went with the curved design versus the "box" was to allow more rooms to have a view of the city skyline. They broke each room down, even to how many "loved-ones" can fit comfortably while visiting. The diagrams and thought going into these things was rather impressive. The final outer design is questionable, but the facility itself will be top notch.

11/18/2016

https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0...e0&oe=58B66622

I don't have inside information but was recently interviewing there and given some information and as I have been in training/practicing medicine I can shed some light as to whether this new facility will replace or add additional beds. Hospital beds are regulated at the state level and typically a hospital will need state approval to add beds and OR's, I don't think there has been any information whether they have or haven't been approved. With that said, with the number of beds and ORs being created, most of this is to replace the older room's and ORs. I believe I was told that the prioritized beds to go to the new facility will be the ICUs (which is typical for any hospital). That said I wouldn't be surprised though if HUP's total #beds increased from 800 to around 1000 in total so some beds will add to HUP's capacity. Also, this will largely allow many of the current rooms in the old HUP buildings to be converted to single private rooms which is more or less the standard that many patients expect in this decade. Also, while I agree with everyone that I think the design really doesn't fit in with Penn's current facilities, this hospital was created for patients first and as someone mentioned above form followed function.

Improved Renderings For Penn Tower Replacement

http://www.ocfrealty.com/naked-phill...er-replacement

That's a good question, but IMO I would likely doubt it both from a practical standpoint of patient care and cost/efficiency. From a patient care standpoint, Wards are best contained on single floors for more rapid response and ease and accessibility between providers and patients. The worst times for a patient to decompensate are in elevators. Furthermore, I'm almost certain that while Penn will keep a few buildings for "historical" purposes from the old hospital complex, they will either start renovating or replacing parts of the old hospital completely. This would be both necessary given that old buildings are basically much more exp to upkeep in the long run. There's also still areas or expansion in the area ie there's another potential tower that could be built on the east side of the PCAM and there's a strip of land immediately east of the proposed new Penn Patient Pavilion.

With the recent additions to Perelman and the new Construction of the Hospital and 3600, Penn has expanded their infrastructure rapidly enough to handle growth for some years.

But of those 3, only the New Patient Pavilion will have/accommodate new patient beds and in-patient ORs, etc., right? So if Penn wanted to expand its in-patient capacity in the future (beyond what the NPP will provide), wouldn't it have to either convert single rooms in NPP to doubles, or build more capacity?

The beige paneling looks dated already. Yuck.

How long did it take Penn to decide to expand their current capacity? You're talking decades away. Besides their recent hospital expansion, Penn has continued to want to have more state of the art outpatient facilities like Radnor and KOP.

PS. I'm sure they can build another wing to Perelman. :???:

Multiple wings. :P


:sly:


:yuck:

I'm curious why there is no fanfare or announcement of this billion dollar project. Also, project is not listed on Foster+Partners website.

I'm sure you're being sarcastic or ironic, but the real answer to the question is no, the whole perelman complex is maxed out in terms of allowable square footage for zoning.

Approved by the CDR

http://planphilly.com/articles/2016/...-design-review

it tells you in the article there will be a groundbreaking soon. Thats likely when you will see media coverage.

Curbed Philly's take:

Foster+Partners’ ‘overwhelming’ Penn Patient Pavilion clears Civic Design Review--The committee had some critiques

It was designed to have a third wing, a tower on the east side, but due to the zoning restrictions it was nixed.
Penn does care about zoning, and it would take much more than one call to Blackwell to get past it.

getting zoning variances is more complicated than that and I think you know that. you have to have hearings, the community gets involved, etc. city council and the ZBA can't just wave their magic wands, we have due process.
the east tower would have been on par with the smilow and south towers.

I have never known Penn to get a variance, but who knows. I wouldn't expect them to just for the reasons you mentioned. But a zoning change done by law is a completely different beast, in many ways much easier for Penn then to attempt a variance.
But in any case, I would put out the idea that Penn/HUP could in the future consider building onto Perelman, if it was originally built with that as a possibility, present zoning be damned.
My question some time ago was wondering if this new building is being designed with any room to expand (upward?) and I guess at this point no one on this outlet knows. I would imagine that for every patient room a hospital needs to have "X" number of sq. footage of support space, such as labs, laundry, food service, etc. I could see that it might be relatively "easy" in the future to add another 2 or 3 floors of patient rooms as they would just go on top of existing patient floors, but unless there were plans in place right from the start to handle such a increase in beds, I don't know where the support space would go.
I need a spy of the inside. Any takers?

BTW, I can't believe that these 500+ patient beds are in addition to the existing 500+ beds that HUP presently has. Just think of where those patients would be coming from, and more to the point, where would the doctors come from. And I'm almost 100% sure that the State Department of Health controls the number of beds (too many and we all pay, but we already pay anyways!).

For your third questions, many if not MOST of the beds will be replacing beds in the older facilities. Many rooms at HUPs sitll have two patient beds in a room which is quickly disappearing at large academic hospitals. Also HUP is already at max capacity. While many community hospitals are operating at low occupancy or even closing due to low occupancy, academic centers are quickly filling up the need for inpatient beds. As for the staff, that is always dynamic, many of the departments at Penn are actively growing.

12/20/2016

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...4d&oe=58B02BC8

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...f0&oe=58F54BFF

Is this as deep as they are going to dig?

I haven't heard an update in a few months, but there may be 5xx beds or whatever works out monetarily. In general Penn Medicine fashion, the "core + shell" is one thing and what they then fill in is another. So if everything works out based on all sorts of calculations and projections that say 583 beds is the number, then that may mean say 15 floors but they may still construct say 20 floors to build "in" the remaining floors later.

They want the rooms to be convenient for change later as patient care evolves so that the floors don't have to be shut down years from now for more specialized care. While that is great planning, it will add significant cost per floor that is build "in".

Licensed beds are not really a concern, it's more of a license/tax fee thing than meant to block or govern growth. As several have pointed out most of the rooms will be to replace older two-patient rooms. Then those older rooms can be renovated, converted to offices, given to the university, whatever as needed. When I do presentations for work, I have to check each time what each hospitals "bed count" is because it changes quite often. In the presentations it is more of a brag right (for our size) than anything else.

By the time the money and need was on hand to in-fill/build-out more floors, the license bed fees would be the least of the concern (cost and time wise).

Capacity of patients is not a simple license bed count, it's also a function of how quickly you can get patients out of the beds, how long you keep them in the operative/post-operative areas, how quickly you can clean a room, and so on. You can always put a patient on a cot in a hall if you had to LOL.

Cheers,
G.

1/13/2017

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...ed&oe=5921E6D0

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...2b&oe=59207604

I bet there are some nice details in here that someone who gets past the paywall can see.

http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelp...work-on-a.html

There aren't. It actually goes so far as to say that they don't quite know what the building will look like yet. Funny thing to say for a project that's already been through CDR.

$1.5 billion is a crazy amount of money, that's the same cost of the Comcast Technology Center. I'm well aware it's what's inside that counts on this, I just hope the great stuff going on inside can be reflected on the outside as well.

PBJ Article:

http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelp...work-on-a.html

bed count
 

"The project will dramatically expand the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania’s bed count"

I guess that answers the question; its not just a replacement of existing beds (rooms) but an actual increase.

Now, if I could just get them to add a few more floors------------------------

So groundbreaking will occur some time during the week leading to Alumni Weekend or in the immediate days after commencement.

2/23/2017

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...9b&oe=592F278C

Wow, they really are right up to the Penn Museum...

Yes, it really is quite amazing as they are using dynamite as well to get through the bedrock.

3/23/17

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...b6&oe=595BA280

Looks like they have reached as deep as they are going to go.

Anyone have an update on the foundation work? Pics?

I stopped by last week end, and during the prior week a huuuuge amount of rock had been taken out of the pit. Before that all the work on the east end had been taking place around the edges. My guess is that they are at or very near the bottom of the hole. I would guess that the pit is at least 60' to 70' deep.
But on the western end there are two prepared areas where it looks like all that would be needed prior to a concrete pour is to have the rebar installed. These two pit type areas are very close together, maybe they are where the core structures will be built in the future. Its been this way for over a month.
Some time ago just as the site was being cleared plans were released that showed only two(?) levels of underground parking. Based on what has been done to date I think its a good bet to think that additional parking has been added (Penn has a real love affair with parking, they can never have enough of it).
In terms of actual foundation work I think that more or less final plans would have to be decided on and approved (as if the City ever says "no" to Penn)before any work can be done. To do a foundation you sortof got to know very specifically what's going to be built on top of it. I know that Penn likes to keep its cards covered for as long as possible, but before too long from now they should be releasing their plans.
I wonder if the final plans will show that the hospital has gotten bigger or smaller? Any updates from inside HUP central?

I know it's apples and oranges, but shouldn't they use the opportunity to replace those janky windows on the museum? Even if they're blacked out, now's as good a time as any to change them out.

the foundation is a large mat/raft foundation for the north part. Should pour part near Memorial Day, bigger part in June.....Reinforcing is being set now.

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...f0&oe=598BCB39https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...4e&oe=59C2D70Dhttps://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...1c&oe=597612B8

I am not sure how these photos went side by side instead of vertically. I would appreciate some editorial help here. Thanks.

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