Parkland Memorial Hospital - New Facility

New Facility

Parkland sees a high volume of patients in its overcrowded 50+-year-old facility. Actual hospital beds can regularly be seen in the hallways. If renovated and brought up to current standards, capacity in the existing facility would have been reduced rather than expanded, an unacceptable outcome in Dallas, which is one of the nation's fastest-growing cities. This situation led to the Dallas County Commissioners Court to propose replacing the building with a new 1,700,000-square-foot (160,000 m2), 17-story, 862-bed facility, along with a new 380,000-square-foot (35,000 m2) outpatient center, a 275,000-square-foot (25,500 m2) office facility, and parking for 6,000 cars. The total cost would be $1.27 billion, to be paid for through three avenues: 1) a $747 million bond proposition (contingent on voter approval, which was obtained in November 2008), 2) $350 million of cash from current and future operations, and 3) $150 million from private donations.

The board approved nearly $100 million in contracts and hired two architectural firms – HDR, Inc. (based in Omaha, Nebraska, but operates a large practice in Dallas) and Corgan Associates Inc. (based in Dallas) – to design the new building. (A parking garage was completed as a design/build project by Whiting-Turner Construction and the architecture firm of Omniplan in January 2012.) One major feature of the new facility is that movements of staff and supplies will be handled in separate corridors and elevators from those used by patients and visitors. The formal groundbreaking ceremony was held in October 2010, and construction is ongoing as of the fall of 2012, with a planned completion date of 2014. The new facility is directly across Harry Hines Boulevard from the existing hospital complex, and will be served by the Medical District station of DART light rail, which opened in December 2010. In addition to Dallas County taxpayers funding the public hospital, large private donations were made as well, over the next five years; one major donation of $1 million was made by the Bank of America Charitable Foundation. Donors will also have their names permanently etched in glass panels in the two-story, glass atrium main lobby.