UMMS Begins Construction of $160M Shock Trauma Building

The University of Maryland Medical Center is starting construction of a $160 million, nine-floor trauma/critical care building that will significantly expand its renowned Shock Trauma Center. The new facility will also boost the capacity of the medical center’s adult and pediatric emergency departments and provide additional beds for intensive care patients.

The 140,000-square-foot building at the corner of Penn and Lombard streets will house 10 state-of-the-art operating rooms and 64 new and replacement critical care beds. The new addition will be connected to the existing R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center and the Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Building. It will also have a second landing pad on the roof for Medevac and Maryland ExpressCare helicopters.

The new building – which has a total of nine floors (seven stories plus basement and ground levels) – is scheduled to be completed in 2013, although renovation of adjacent floors in the existing Shock Trauma Center could continue into early 2014.

Whiting-Turner, a Baltimore-based firm, is the construction manager for the project. “We expect the project to generate about 300 construction jobs and have a significant impact on the local economy,” says Leonard Taylor, Jr., vice president of facilities. He adds that the medical center’s goal is to have 25 percent of the work performed by minority contractors.

By the time the building is completed, the medical center expects to have added another 250 employees to its work force to staff the expanded areas. Currently, the medical center has more than 6,800 employees.

The building was designed by Ballinger, a Philadelphia, Pa.-based architectural firm, in an “environmentally sustainable” way and is expected to meet criteria for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council as a “green” building, according to Taylor.

The state has committed $50 million over five years for the medical center’s expansion. There is also a $2.4 million federal appropriation for state-of-the-art equipment in the new operating rooms, and more federal support is anticipated.

The third, fourth, fifth and sixth floors will each have 16 new private rooms grouped into intensive care units, with individual charting alcoves between the rooms that enable nurses to see the patients and carefully monitor their condition.

The new building is Phase IV of the University of Maryland Medical Center’s strategic facilities expansion plan. The existing Shock Trauma Center opened in 1989, the Homer Gudelsky Building opened in 1994 and the Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Building opened in 2003.