Abbott & Children’s Hospitals Mother Baby Center

Harris performed the plumbing, HVAC and temperature controls work for the new Mother Baby Center at Abbott Northwestern Hospital and Children’s Hospital.

The birth center, located on the Children’s Minneapolis campus, has a dedicated entrance for expectant moms and families. The 96,000-square foot, four-story building includes 44 post-partum rooms, 11 high-risk antepartum beds, 13 labor and delivery rooms, three operating rooms and skyway access to Abbott Northwestern Hospital. The facility is steps away from Children’s new NICU, which features 44 private patient rooms with pullout sofas for parents and an environment especially designed for premature babies. The family-centered Mother Baby Center allows mothers and babies to be together while providing babies with nationally renowned care from the Children’s NICU.

Due to budget constraints, the Harris team used the design-assist process to identify significant opportunities that would help maintain cost targets. Harris identified and provided cost comparisons for items such as: reusing existing piping, ductwork and variable air volume (VAV) boxes that were initially scheduled to be demolished; reducing VAV box zones in non-patient areas; reducing fire and fire/smoke damper counts by meeting and coordinating with the local code officials; and removing sound attenuators in the VAV specification that were not needed.