Veterinary Teaching Hospital expansion about quality of life, not just more space
Merely say the word “construction” and one can almost hear the skull-rattling sound of jackhammers.
But when that work is being done to expand a veterinary hospital where the day-to-day work of saving animal lives will be ongoing, concerns about noise and dust are more than about personal convenience.
"First and foremost, this is an operating hospital," said Bryan Underwood, project executive for Roanoke-based Branch Builds. "That brings its own set of challenges."
"You can't be cutting up concrete with dust migrating into a surgery room, where they're operating on an animal," Underwood said. "This cannot happen."
Throughout the estimated two-year construction period of the planned $43 million expansion and renovation of the Veterinary Teaching Hospital at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, pets will continue receiving care and students will continue learning, requiring extraordinary measures from the construction team.
"You don't get to jackhammer here," said Todd Ray, lead designer with Page, now part of Stantec Architecture, Inc. "What are the tools that we can use? Water jets, water lasers. We must modify the whole construction sequence to accommodate the fact that you've got a non-vibrational situation just a few feet away as we're trying to build and remodel all of this."
More space, better space
Sound and debris control during construction is one example of how quality of life, not just quantity of space, is prioritized in the expansion and renovation project slated for a groundbreaking late this year, pending Board of Visitors approval in the spring.
Quantity of space itself, however, is an issue for how well clinicians and students can perform the work of treating animals and serving their owners. The project is slated to add 32,000 square feet while renovating 25,000 square feet in a hospital that has remained essentially unchanged since the 1980s.
For those who work in the hospital daily, the space constraints have become increasingly problematic as veterinary medicine has evolved.
"We've expanded the number of services we have," said Tanya LeRoith, director of the Veterinary Teaching Hospital. "We've expanded the number of students we have in the clinics. We just don't have any space. With the growth of our emergency service, and the growth of our Community Practice, we just don't have enough exam rooms for everyone, and that's holding back cases. We could have three emergencies come in at the same time. We have enough personnel to be able to move from one room to another, we just don't have a place to put them."
Plans include updating the emergency room, which is currently confined to a space the size of a standard meeting room but would expand to 4,000 square feet.
For veterinary students, the changes will be transformative.
"Our students that are now first-year students, they will be doing their clinical activities in a new and newly revised small animal teaching hospital," said Dan Givens, dean of the veterinary college. "This is going to have a big impact. It's going to have dedicated space for student learning rounds, student touchdown spaces, staff areas, faculty spaces, much better than we have now."
Project planners have noted that when families bring their pets to the hospital, it can be difficult knowing exactly where to bring them.
"When you approach the building, as I have with my own pets, having had a couple of experiences getting referred to the vet school at Virginia Tech, it's not immediately apparent where I am supposed to go," said Doug Childress, director of preconstruction for Branch and Associates, who along with his wife helps foster animals in need. "So that's one of the things that I think this addition will correct."
A livable work space
Beyond solving urgent space problems, designers are focused on creating an environment that nurtures everyone who spends time in the building — from faculty and students to clients and their animals.
"It's important to build a facility that reduces stress, provides a healthy and sustainable environment, and represents a place where people can do their best work. We want people to feel good about their environment," said Laura Vargas, project manager with Page. "We know that when people feel their best, they can perform at their best. We want this facility to promote wellness, not only for the animals, but the humans who care for them as well. So, we're looking for ways to bring in more daylight, create places for respite and recovery, and foster moments of social and intellectual collaboration. We're creating an environment where students, faculty, and staff feel a greater sense of belonging, and in turn, improve both the clinical care of the animals and the clinical training of the students."
Vargas noted that the current facility has aged considerably, with many spaces serving multiple purposes over the decades.
"They are making do with a very, very complex facility," she said. "There are many spaces that have started to age out. There are spaces that have taken on new lives, sometimes two, three, four times over. They're really making do, and they're doing a great job providing the level of care that they are given these circumstances."
Construction is expected to take approximately two years, which may seem like even longer to those who frequent the hospital once orange cones and yellow tape go up on the veterinary college grounds.
"I know it's going to be a painful process," said Greg Daniel, former interim dean and longtime radiologist at the veterinary college now serving on the steering committee for the hospital expansion. "But it's worth it. It's a year or two of pain, but at the end result, it makes it justifiable."
For Givens, the project represents the culmination of years of planning: "This is a conversation that began more than 15 years ago and has progressed through multiple deans. I'm simply holding the baton as we're about to cross that threshold into being able to break ground on this project."
