Photo courtesy Stantec
A portion of the McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, Illinois, is being converted into a temporary alternate care facility (ACF) for COVID-19 patients.
Stantec is providing design and engineering services for the temporary conversion. Walsh Construction is the contractor for the project.
The unprecedented facility will have the capacity to treat up to 3000 low-to-moderate acuity patients across three of the convention center’s halls, where patients will be separated by level of care required. The Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA) in association with the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) will direct the conversion of McCormick Place into a facility focused on patient care, infection control, fire protection, and life safety. The ACF is designed to relieve pressure on the hospital system by freeing up beds for more patients with severe COVID-19 cases in anticipation of the surge in positive COVID-19 diagnoses to come.
“We need to quickly and efficiently leverage our existing spaces and infrastructure, to allow our healthcare professionals to focus on providing care in this time of crisis,” said Douglas King, AIA, NCARB, ACHA, healthcare principal at Stantec. “Our team at Stantec is proud to support this mission in our local Chicago community, and we hope it will serve as a model across the country.”
The temporary field hospital is expected to be complete by April 24; construction on the first 500 beds was completed on April 3.
“We mobilized and began work immediately,” said Thomas Caplis, vice-president of healthcare at Walsh Construction. “Walsh Construction is proud to support these extraordinary efforts of MPEA and Army Corps of Engineers that will offer essential care to our Chicago neighbors and much needed assistance to our vital healthcare system.”
