Tocci Building Companies Breaks Ground on Cancer Pavilion at Marlborough Hospital

BOSTON, Mass. — Tocci Building Companies announced Marlborough Hospital has broken ground on its new Cancer Pavilion. The facility is part of the UMass Memorial Health Care’s Cancer Center of Excellence, and Tocci will partner with architect The S/L/A/M Collaborative (S/L/A/M). For the first time in Massachusetts, a healthcare project will be built using Integrated Project Delivery.

Marlborough Hospital chose the team of Tocci and S/L/A/M for its experience using IPD, a contract form and design/construction process that fuses parties together in the spirit of ownership, collaboration and mutual responsibility for the project’s success. The Cancer Pavilion will become the first completed healthcare project in New England to use an IPD contract, delivering vastly lower risk to UMass Memorial through unequivocal and shared guarantees to achieve specific cost, time and quality goals. The project will also benefit from co-location, a practice in which representatives of major disciplines – such as structural engineer, electrical subcontractor and M/E/P engineer – work on-site several days a week in a central office to drive face-to-face collaboration and real-time problem solving.

“As a team, there were times when we were highly challenged, and I’m sure we’re not done. But we discussed our approach to meeting those challenges up front based on the IPD process, and we met them head-on,” said Candra Szymanski, MS, RN, chief operating officer of Marlborough Hospital.  “Each company has been at the table since the first day, all working steadfastly to achieve the shared goal of building an innovative patient-centered facility where patients will come with the hope of living with the best quality of life possible. This experience has verified for me that I will never build a hospital any other way than through IPD.” 

The 14,500-square-foot addition will offer state-of-the-art cancer care services, including medical oncology, radiation oncology, highly-trained cancer specialists and access to the latest treatments and therapies. The construction program includes a healing garden as well as dedicated areas for medical and radiation oncology exams and treatment. Presently, medical oncology is located on the second floor of the hospital’s 1952-built building while radiation oncology is available only off site. The completed project will cluster cancer services together under one roof with a dedicated patient entrance and services, and includes the world’s most sophisticated linear accelerator technology available. The Cancer Pavilion will be built according to LEED principles of sustainable construction.

“As a leader in building better teams and better projects through IPD, we’re excited to leverage the power of virtualization in the construction of the new Cancer Pavilion at Marlborough Hospital,” said John Tocci, chief enabling officer of Tocci Building Companies. “This project will not only create a cutting-edge cancer treatment facility in Central Massachusetts, but will also serve as a model for other teams anxious to improve teamwork and keep project costs under control.”

The project will be completed in the spring of 2013. Fitzemeyer & Tocci Associates of Stoneham is providing M/E/P engineering services.