Since the start of construction in the fall of 2020, the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center’s new Inpatient Hospital has become increasingly visible. Now topped out at 26 stories, the enormous building is hard to miss, towering over the OSU campus and the Olentangy River.
It also stands above the 21-story James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, which sits directly next door and seemed pretty big itself when it was completed in 2014. At 1.9 million square feet, the new tower is about 800,000 square feet larger than the James, and by the time it is finished, the two buildings will be completely integrated – connected on each floor, so they will essentially function as one large building.
To put the scale of the project in perspective, Columbus’ tallest building, the Rhodes Tower, contains about 1.2 million square feet of space. In terms of height, the new tower will be the 10th-tallest building in Columbus and the tallest outside of Downtown. In terms of materials, OSU says that the project will use two times more concrete than Ohio Stadium and twice as much steel as the Eiffel Tower.
The $1.9 billion facility will hold up to 820 beds, 30 operating rooms, 51 NICU bassinets, and over 50 elevators.
The hospital’s size helps to explain its construction timeline – there is still a lot of work to be done. The building is on track for “substantial completion” in October of 2025, with the first patients scheduled to move in at some point during the second quarter of 2026.
Columbus Underground recently took a tour of the construction site, led by John Stiles, Senior Architectural Consultant; Ragan Fallang, Executive Project Manager; and Michele Williams Project Manager for the new hospital’s activation team.
Fallang said that there are between 1,000 and 1,100 workers on site per day.
“We hit peak early this year, and think we can sustain that through most of this year, then start to taper off as some of the exterior trades start wrapping up,” he said.
Over half of the 820 beds in the new hospital will essentially be replacements for existing beds in Doan Hall and Rhodes Hall. The future of those buildings is still being decided.
“Space needed for care teams is getting bigger…we want the family more involved now, so we want that room to be bigger,” Fallang said. “Average room size in Doan is like 225 square feet, and we’re going to be 350 square feet [in the new facility]; their operating rooms are 440 to 500 square feet, we’re 660 and up here, so the standard of care has really been elevated; we needed to build a new facility to keep up…not just today but for the next 50 years.”
Work was just finishing up on the new, 1,900-space visitor parking garage when the pandemic hit.
“We were pretty much through the design process [for the hospital], but we did talk to the front line nursing leaders and physicians about, ‘ok, what lessons learned do we have that we should accommodate into the project?'” Stiles said. “They asked us to co-locate some of our airborne infection isolation rooms, so they were easily found and if we have this kind of case you can go right there, but we also took it a step further and [turned the entire 10th] floor into an airborne infection isolation floor, so the next pandemic we’d be prepared to handle 60 beds, in one area, by venting everything out through the side of the building, through HEPA filters.”
Other technological innovations in the building include 75-inch monitors in every patient room that could potentially be used for tele-health sessions or video calls with family, and chutes that can distribute trash, recycling and linens from the top of the building to the loading dock at speeds of up to 60 miles per hour.
There are also lots of design features meant to improve the overall atmosphere for patients, visitors and staff. Every patient room has large, nine-by-nine foot windows, and staff break rooms and visitor waiting areas have also been designed to have good views and an abundance of natural light.
The building’s facade is primarily made of glass and Portugese limestone.
“It’s a very nice, warm color,” Stiles said. “It has some character to it, we wanted the building to have a warm feel, to welcome everybody, even on those cold, gray Columbus winter days.”
Scroll down for more pictures from the tour and additional information on the project.
All photos by Brent Warren except where noted.
