105 replies to this topic

[Aporkalypse]

I thought this was interesting.  There's a major campaign to build on the many recent new projects,  By 2008, UAMS will move to a new hospital.  To do so the current 10-story residence hall will be imploded in March and new residence halls are under construction.  The entire project is to cost roughly $250 million.

Here's the new hospital from two different angles. Building it will require implosion of the current dormitory and rerouting the major street through campus.





The new residence halls, already under construction...



After this, a new Psychiatry Research Institute will be built on campus...

[Mith242]

Interesting.  I wish we could get some sort of medical school up in northwest Arkansas one of these days.

[mcheiss]

Nice pics.

Any other projects going on at UAMS?

[Mith242]

Does UAMS have much room to grow or will they have to build up?

[mcheiss]

I seem to remember a project going on in an eye-center there.

Also, those residence halls look almost identical to the new Northwest Quad Residence Halls in UofA.

[Mith242]

mcheiss, on Nov 21 2005, 04:25 PM, said:

I seem to remember a project going on in an eye-center there.

Also, those residence halls look almost identical to the new Northwest Quad Residence Halls in UofA.

They are similar although these appear to have a white base.

[Aporkalypse]

Mith242, on Nov 21 2005, 03:37 PM, said:

Interesting.  I wish we could get some sort of medical school up in northwest Arkansas one of these days.

Can't happen. Arkansas can only support one med school and if it weren't mandated by state law the administration would like to cut back on students from 150 a year (MS, for example, has only 99).  UAMS is a huge drain on the state budget. UAF could use a pharmacy school, though, IMO.  There's a huge pharmacist shortage.

Quote

Does UAMS have much room to grow or will they have to build up?

I seem to remember a project going on in an eye-center there.

Also, those residence halls look almost identical to the new Northwest Quad Residence Halls in UofA.

I thought the same thing about the residence halls.  UAMS is bound by the state hospital to the west, Markham to the north, and I-630 to the South.  The last phases of expansion prior to this one were done by tearing down parts of the neighborhood east of campus and future plans involve expanding into that area.  Otherwise, they have to go up and virtually every building has been built with potential to expand upward.  The Arkansas Cancer Research Center, Jones Eye Institute, and Education-III started smaller but ended up around 10-12 floors.

Here's the Jones Eye Institute, which recently had 5 floors added...



The Stephens Spine Center is 12 stories tall and was built from the ground up in 2002-2003...



The Donald Reynolds Center on Aging was built in 2000-2001 and one of the nation's top 10 geriatrics centers and treats the Waltons among others...



The Ward Tower is a patient bed addition to the older hospital containg ICUs, ORs, patient beds, and the bone marrow transplant units and was completed in 1999...




This is a current aerial of the UAMS-VA complex, the building at the bottom under construction is the Biomedical Research Building II which has now been completed.  Just East of this and off the map is Arkansas Bioventures, a venture capital biosciences incubator housed in a 3-story building.

Edited by Aporkalypse, 21 November 2005 - 09:13 PM.

[Mith242]

I guess I didn't realize that about the medical school.  Well a pharmacy school would be nice too up here I guess.  I think I remember seeing a few of those buildings in the background of some of those pics when I was in Little Rock.

[Aporkalypse]

Mith242, on Nov 22 2005, 05:31 AM, said:

I guess I didn't realize that about the medical school.  Well a pharmacy school would be nice too up here I guess.  I think I remember seeing a few of those buildings in the background of some of those pics when I was in Little Rock.

New medical schools have to be approved by the American Association of Medical Colleges which keeps the number of medical students entering each year roughly equal to those retiring or passing away.  Florida State recently opened a new one because Florida's growth left them with a big shortage, the last two before that were UT-San Antonio and University of South Florida back in the 1970s.

You'll notice UAMS's cluster of buildings as you travel down I-630 near the Zoo, malls, and Ray Winder Field.  It's hard to miss.

[mcheiss]

It's a very nice facility.

[Mith242]

Aporkalypse, on Nov 22 2005, 10:09 AM, said:

New medical schools have to be approved by the American Association of Medical Colleges which keeps the number of medical students entering each year roughly equal to those retiring or passing away.  Florida State recently opened a new one because Florida's growth left them with a big shortage, the last two before that were UT-San Antonio and University of South Florida back in the 1970s.

You'll notice UAMS's cluster of buildings as you travel down I-630 near the Zoo, malls, and Ray Winder Field.  It's hard to miss.

Yeah I probably saw them traveling on I-630 and didn't know what exactly I was seeing.

[CentralArkansas]

What's going to be done with the old hospital once the new one is finished?

[Aporkalypse]

CentralArkansas, on Nov 23 2005, 02:21 PM, said:

What's going to be done with the old hospital once the new one is finished?

Ultimately, implosion and room for additional expansion of the new hospital.  I'm not sure what the timetable is on that, though.

BTW, the original hospital was built in the 1950s and is virtually identical to Stanford's hospital, which had the same architect.  The idea was that those concrete ledges would prevent sun from shining directly into the windows and this would preclude the need for air conditioning.  Of course, this was untrue and it was expensive to go back and put in the AC system and the ledges led to the structure looking horribly outdated.  Regardless of what those in Little Rock and Palo Alto might think of the architect, he received national recognition the following year for designing Pepsi's HQs in White Plains, NY.

[skirby]

For those looking for something to do. UAMS will  implode the old dormitory building at 9 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 19.

[Architect]

How do you attach images from your own computer (not a URL)?

[mcheiss]

^You have to have a photo hosting program, like photobucket.com. That's what I use.

[Aporkalypse]

Dormitory implosion is set for Feb 19th.  Wish I was in LR, I'd go watch it.

[Aporkalypse]

New pictures:

UAMS Psychiatry Institute



Another image of the new hospital



Stacking diagram



There's a 3D birds eye view tour here...

UAMS hospital expansion

[Mith242]

Cool, thanks for the info and link Aporkalypse.  

[mcheiss]

Oh, I hope a video is shown of that implosion.