SSM Health plans to break ground Aug. 31 on its new $550 million SSM HealthSaint Louis University Hospital, with a projected completion date of Sept. 1, 2020.
The health care system released renderings Wednesday providing the first look at the new hospital and ambulatory care center, which includes more than 800,000 square feet of space and 316 private patient rooms.
The design for the new facility, which will be located on 15 acres adjacent to the current hospital off Grand Boulevard between Rutger and Lasalle streets, includes a nine-story patient tower and a three-story ambulatory care center connected by a common space that will include amenities such as the cafeteria, gift shop and chapel.
The hospital will feature an expanded trauma center and emergency department, larger intensive care units and expanded patient parking. With patient rooms on the right and left hand sides of the hospital, the middle section will feature educational space, which hospital President Kate Becker said is key to the hospital’s mission.
“This new design supports our mission both of providing quality patient care and supporting education,” Becker said.
The plans also includes space for future growth. A green space east of the parking garage could be used for future office or retail expansion, the south side of the ambulatory care center was designed to allow for possible expansion, and the hospital includes space to add a possible second bed tower to the west of the new patient tower.
“We could actually double the size of the hospital,” Becker said.
Becker said no decisions have been made yet about the future of the existing Desloge Tower. She said space in the tower is still being used for academic purposes by Saint Louis University. “We’re talking to the university about their interest in continuing use of the hospital space, then we can make decisions about what happens to it,” she said.
Alberici Constructors Inc. is the construction manager for the project. Lawrence Group, in partnership with Hammel, Green and Abrahamson (HGA) and Frank Zilm and Associates Inc., is the architect.
