The 18-month project at Comer Children's Hospital included a five-story addition a pediatric emergency department on the first floor, several floors of shell space for future expansion and the top floor for mechanical, electrical, steam and chilled water systems, says project manager Michael Mastin. "They were looking to update their facilities and have a new pediatric emergency department," Mastin says. The pediatric emergency department includes 21 exam rooms and various other types of rooms such as trauma, procedure, isolation and psychiatric examination rooms. The project also included a lobby with interactive children's games and a patient monitoring hub that allows for "real-time" data. The hospital remained occupied during the project necessitating an alert system if noise became too loud or there was a risk of the vibrations compromising patient care. "Since we were working next to an occupied and live hospital, they had a system in place where we could basically shut down the entire job site in moments notice," he says.

Construction began on the addition at Comer Children's Hospital in May 2005. Smith Group was the project architect.

At Swedish Covenant Hospital, Leopardo expanded and renovated the emergency room department, including the visitor lounge, air treatment system and adding separate entrances for ambulances and the public. Additionally, the patient triage area was enlarged and 10 exam rooms and additional ambulance bays were added. Anderson Mikos Architects was the project architect.