The American Council of Engineering Companies has named the Wonder Tower at Children’s Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University as an Honor Award winner of its 2024 National Engineering Excellence Awards in the Structural Systems category. Located in Richmond, Virginia’s downtown district, Wonder Tower is situated on a confined site within VCU’s medical center and academic campus.
The Children’s Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University recently completed construction of the 560,000-square-foot Wonder Tower to provide emergency, trauma and inpatient care services. The project included a 280-foot-long enclosed pedestrian skybridge to connect to the VCU Medical Center main hospital.
Constructed overtop and alongside CHoR’s existing outpatient pavilion, the horizontal and vertical expansion presented several engineering challenges. These challenges demanded creativity and teamwork to meet the owner and community’s needs. Structural engineers Dunbar and Walter P Moore navigated myriad complex site logistics and stringent new seismic design requirements to bring this transformative asset to life. Read more about this project here.
