DAYTON, Ohio — Dayton Children’s Hospital Board of Trustees recently approved a long-range facility and campus renewal plan that calls for transforming the hospital’s Valley Street campus to improve the delivery of care to children in this region for generations to come.
“Our strategic roadmap, Destination 2020, calls for us to advance our role as a leader in children’s health. A thorough assessment of how we will achieve this vision has revealed that new spaces are needed to provide critical services well into the future,” says CEO and President Deborah A. Feldman.
Dayton Children’s engaged FKP Architects to lead the development of the long-range plan. The nearly nine-month assessment and planning processes included input from stakeholders including physicians, staff and patient families.
The plan calls for the construction of a 260,000-square-foot, eight-story patient tower in the center of the hospital’s current Valley Street campus. While the design and specifics of the project are not set, the new space will accommodate the latest research findings for delivery of comprehensive care to kids with cancer and to critically ill newborns. The estimated cost of the construction and renovations is $140 million. The preliminary timeline calls for construction to start early next year to make room for the tower, and a new central utilities plant, with the entire project to be completed sometime in 2017.
“This is a great milestone on our path to a vibrant, world-class pediatric care facility that will help us achieve our goals of improving the health of all children and remaining an independent children’s hospital well into the future,” says Feldman.
The long-range plan calls for the building of new spaces because nearly 70 percent of the current facilities are older than 35 years and have approached the end of useful life for the delivery of clinical care.
With the board’s approval to move forward, the hospital will begin the design and planning phase, continuing to work with FKP. Danis Building Construction Company has been retained to lead the construction project. The hospital is hopeful that philanthropy will play a vital role in funding the project.
