On Sunday, June 20, 2021 (Father’s Day), the Penn Medicine Pavilion team oversaw the installation of steel beams and wall panels for the enclosure around the elevators on the roof. To get the beams and wall panel sections to the roof, the team, led by LF Driscoll and Balfour Beatty US, had the pieces lifted into place by helicopter. On the roof, a team of workers from Berlin Steel Construction Co. quickly placed and installed the beams and panels.

 

The materials transport and installation took only about four hours to complete. The 17 story, 1.5 million square foot hospital is scheduled to open at the end of October 2021.

From the Philadelphia Business Journal:

The elevator enclosure is on the exterior of the building because it serves a helipad on top of the pavilion, unlike a typical building where a penthouse falls within the general envelope of a structure. The elevators are used to bring patients transported by helicopter into the hospital.

“It was an interesting architectural puzzle to decide how that would look and work with the rest of the building,” said Stephen Greulich, associate vice president for large capital projects at Penn Medicine. “Once that got resolved, the cranes were already removed.”

That meant figuring out a way to install the large panels and steel beams to create the enclosure. The options were limited to bringing in a new crane or doing it by helicopter. After evaluating both and considering the logistics and impact on the neighborhood, a helicopter was chosen.

 

Other GBCA members involved in the project, since the beginning and listed here alphabetically, include the following:

  • Apache Industrial United
  • AT Chadwick Company, Inc.
  • Bayshore Rebar
  • Berlin Steel Construction Co.
  • Binsky & Snyder, LLC
  • Chesco Coring & Cutting
  • Dale Construction
  • DM Sabia & Co.
  • Hilti Inc.
  • Jenkintown Building Services
  • Madison Concrete Construction
  • Med-Tex Services, Inc.
  • Oliver Fire Protection & Security
  • Paul Rabinowitz Glass Co., Inc.
  • PDM Constructors
  • Richard S. Burns & Company
  • Roma Steel
  • Shore Supply
  • Smith Flooring, Inc.
  • Steadfast Entities
  • Superior Scaffold Services
  • The Graham Company
  • The Watson Organization, Inc.
  • United Rentals