DENVER – The Weitz Company, a national general contractor, design-builder and construction manager that serves all 50 U.S. states, has completed phase two of the only Children’s Hospital Colorado-approved, safe-clean housing facility for immunocompromised patients and their families.
Originally called Brent’s Place Too but later named in honor of a former patient, Tanner’s House opened in July to add a second healing and recovery wing to the Brent Eley Foundation’s family-centered care community that is conveniently located near Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora.. The 28,320-square-foot, three-story, Prescient building includes 21, fully furnished residential units that double the number of patients and families Brent’s Place can accommodate to more than 200 per year at no cost.
Johnson Nathan Strohe was the architect for the project and MEP Engineering, Inc. were the engineers.
The building addition features a game room; resource center; movie room; community kitchen; and outdoor playground that will enable more than 300 support programs and activities to alleviate daily burdens and increase the emotional health of each family member.
“The construction of Tanner House at Brent Place was perhaps the biggest challenge that I have faced in my seven-plus years at the Brent Eley Foundation. With no experience with a project of this nature, I was nervous and uncertain of the challenges in front of me,” said Brent Eley Foundation CEO Sean Meyerhoffer. “From the very beginning, The Weitz Company made this a team effort and showed that success would be achieved with input from everyone at the table. I simply can’t say enough about the professionalism, creativity, determination
and care Weitz showed in minimizing the impact on our current families while pressing to meet our schedule and move families into our new building as soon as possible.”
Weitz broke ground on Tanner’s House in May 2016. By utilizing Lean construction disciplines such as Last Planner® and Building Information Modeling (BIM), Weitz was able to minimize waste on the project, drive efficiencies to remain on schedule and identify construction constraints early to ensure timely decisions. Weitz also partnered with Arvada, Colo.-based Prescient Co., Inc. to increase productivity and quality by assembling the light-gauge, steel stud building structure off-site, which created a predictable, precise and dimensionally stable
installation on-site.
“These kids are so special, and our team understood the importance of completing Tanner’s House in the fastest manner possible to increase the care available to these families. We applied multiple innovation strategies to tighten the project schedule without jeopardizing safety or quality,” said Troy Garrett, The Weitz Company executive vice president and general manager.
Image courtesy of James Raye Spahn.
