October 9, 2024

Light-Gauge Steel Framing (over $1 million) Oregon

Photo by Cooper Howard

Each connection point at the floor and ceiling from the new tower to the existing structure required seismic expansion joints. WPI’s framing, insulation, and finishes needed to seamlessly tie into all these points, making it a challenging and precise process.

Asante New Tower Expansion

Location: 515 Medical Center Drive, Medford

Contractor: Western Partitions

Architect: HDR

Team: Laborers International Union of North America Local 737, Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters, Plasterers Local 82, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades

The Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center expansion is a six-story hospital tower that adds 345,000 square feet to the existing hospital in Medford. The architect HDR, and general contractor, Anderson Construction, selected Western Partitions for the interior framing of this spacious facility.

The new tower on the north side of the campus, connects to the existing six-floor patient tower, adding 20 operating rooms, 30 short-stay rooms, 64 ICU beds spread across two floors, a 78-bed women’s unit and children’s unit also spread across two floors, a special care nursery, support space for supply chain and sterile processing, a central utility plant, a café/gift shop, staff on-call rooms, locker rooms, break rooms and infrastructure expansions. This addition will serve the greater Medford community and add needed care units and services to the area.

The New Tower Expansion to Asante is unique in that it ties to the existing hospital at the curved, football-shaped patient tower across six levels by adding a new transition area at each floor from the straight addition to the curved existing building, and a skybridge also connects the new tower to the existing tower. Each connection point at the floor and ceiling from the new building to the existing structure required seismic expansion joints. Western Partitions’ framing, insulation, and finishes needed to seamlessly tie into all these points, making it a challenging and precise process.

Western Partitions faced a number of challenges on this project, including working directly next to a fully operational hospital on an active campus with multiple intersections to the existing hospital. As a hospital project with operating rooms, cleanliness was of utmost importance, particularly in the latter portion of the project where most surfaces needed to be sterilized before passing the project to the owner for use. Finally, with the project being in Medford, it was challenging to find and acquire workers. Western Partitions is a lesser-known company in the area and the population is considerably smaller. Fortunately, Western Partitions found the needed workers, overcame these challenges and delivered an outstanding project.

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