Construction Begins on Rehab Pavilion at Sarasota Memorial Hospital

TAMPA, Fla. – Construction has begun on a new 74,000-square-foot rehabilitation pavilion at Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Sarasota, Florida. The GS&P-designed building will house comprehensive clinical rehabilitation services and is scheduled to open in December 2016. Skanska is the general contractor.

The five-story pavilion will include 44 private rooms on two floors dedicated to inpatient care. The pavilion will have gyms, an outdoor mobility garden and mock apartments complete with kitchens, bedrooms, bathrooms and living rooms. These innovative spaces will allow patients to practice or relearn daily activities, such as safely getting in and out of bed or the shower, maneuvering around furniture, using household appliances and walking and using a wheelchair on different uneven outdoor surfaces. It will also have a floor dedicated to patients undergoing a full range of outpatient therapy.

To prepare the site for construction, GS&P was also involved in planning the demolition of an existing 1960s-era wing of the hospital. When complete, the new facility will replace the current 34-bed inpatient rehabilitation unit, which is more than 30 years old and handles more than 800 patients every year. The firm’s previous work at Sarasota Memorial Hospital includes the design of a new patient bed tower that opened in 2013 and the relocation and expansion of its central energy plant.