Update On Children’s Hospital Plans For Newest 8-Story Building

The Laurelhurst Community Club (LCC) published information in their recent newsletter about Children's Hospital's plans for their newest building, "Forest B," which will be located on the existing surface parking lot near the Emergency Room, at an angle to Building Hope.

The LCC October newsletter article said:

Children’s Forest B Plans Take Shape 

Seattle Children’s Hospital (SCH) has applied for approval of its June 2008 Master Use permit #3028028 for Phase 2 of its expansion, Forest B. Their EIS addendum evaluates a range of changes and impacts from the original project data and plans that will affect bordering neighborhoods. LCC has worked with SCH in its development of the Master Plan and will continue to do so in a cooperative relationship seeking outcomes that both meet the hospital’s needs and address neighborhood impacts. 

The build out will add an eight-story structure and includes diagnostic and treatment facilities (primarily out-patient cancer and others), labs, new state-of-the-art operating rooms, 20 inpatient beds, and a lobby. Two floors underground are for parking and sterile processing. This will bring SCH bed total to 409, up from 200 before its expansion 2012 plan. 

Outside surface parking at that location will be eliminated and 323 parking places will be located under Forest B – a net increase of 137 spaces. There will be exits to Penny Drive and 40th Ave NE, which is already heavily congested and is the main entrance to Laurelhurst for the nearest fire and emergency vehicles. To relieve construction, shuttles would shift north to an internal loop road exiting to Sand Point Way NE. 

The helicopter landing pad will move temporarily to the roof of Forest A (176’). Lighting will be as low as permissible; however, each patient transport takes a minimum of 20 to 45 minutes. Noise likely will be louder than the ground-based helipad. When Forest B is complete, the helistop moves to its permanent location on top of Forest B (same height). Noise levels will remain increased at nearby residential sites in Laurelhurst. LCC will continue to monitor. 

LCC has always supported and will continue to support the need to transport critically ill children via helicopters at the helistop. In 2015, there were 111 landings (44% more than predicted in the original EIS); in 2016, 85 landings, more than anticipated using 2007 projections and with fewer beds. 

The biggest change in the Construction Plan for Phase 2, Forest B, is the sheer number of trucks per day that will impact the streets around the building site, particularly, along 40th Avenue NE. The original proposal was 27 to 84 trucks daily for seven to 10 months. Now the plan proposes to shorten the schedule to four months, but that would be 94 trucks per day. SDOT will need to evaluate such a change to ensure that 40th Avenue NE can remain open for neighborhood egress and emergency vehicles. 

LCC will continue to work with Children’s to address issues.  The scheduled opening of the new building is planned for the summer of 2021.

.

Todd Johnson, Children's Hospital Vice President, Facilities and Supply Chain, told the Laurelhurst Blog Staff: in July:

Forest B will be approximately 300,000 square feet (about the size of Forest A) and eight stories tall, within approved Major Institution Master Plan guidelines. During construction, we may add a temporary construction driveway on Sand Point Way.  Construction will generally be five days a week and there will be activity after hours. 

Forest B will be a diagnostic and therapeutic building designed to support the sickest children in our region and will also be home to 20 new cancer care beds (only new beds in the project) on the top floor under an approved certificate of need to the State of Washington (a formal process to gain approval for additional beds).  

The new building will also have a new outpatient clinic space for cancer and cardiac care; a new infusion center; new large, state-of-the-art operating rooms and support spaces; a clinical laboratory and inpatient pharmacy and a work space for physicians and others caring for patients in the building.   

There will be approximately 300 underground parking spaces.  The Hospital shuttles will move to the north end of the site.  The circulation of shuttles, bicycles, pedestrians and cars will be better separated.   

We will make deliberate connections to the bus stops and Burke Gilman Trail crosswalk.  We are working with Transpo Group to better understand how to optimize the flow of traffic on and around our campus.

There will be a landscaped plaza and circulation area in front of the new building.  Existing landscaping around the construction site will be preserved and/or replaced and enhanced. 

We intend to utilize the existing entrances/exits on 40^th Avenue NE and Sand Point Way and will continue to use the Penney Drive entrance as the primary means for entering and exiting.  The Phil Smart Way connector will remain in place.  

The hospital determined it needed additional facilities based on growing patient volumes, innovation-driven program growth (in areas such as immunotherapy and neurosciences), and the functional obsolescence of some of the oldest buildings on campus.  

We expect a certificate of occupancy in mid-2021.  We then will then commission building systems, clean, install furnishings and equipment, and complete staff training.  We should be ready to care for patients in late 2021 or early 2022.

Additionally, the Laurelhurst Community Club (LCC) published in a newsletter that the helistop will move to Building Hope temporarily and later will be located on the roof of the Forest B Building. And the Hartman Building, the brick one-story building, located directly across from the Hospital, will become an outpatient diabetic care facility with construction starting in early 2018 and completion in 2020-21. 

The Hospital currently has 373 beds, of which most of are being renovated and changed into new NICU beds.  When Forest B is complete, the Hospital will have a total of beds.