Wednesday, June 1, marked a milestone for Kitchell as the $538M patient tower opened at Phoenix Children’s Hospital.

The hospital is Kitchell’s largest project in the firm’s 60-plus year history. Kitchell broke ground on the 11-story facility in May 2008. With hundreds of new beds and new clinics, PCH will now treat children who need outpatient care in a variety of specialties, including dermatology, endocrinology, pulmonology, gastroenterology and orthopedics.

Modeled on a night-blooming desert flower and visible from throughout the Valley, PCH is visually striking but it is the inner workings of the hospital that are most remarkable.

“Working on Phoenix Children’s Hospital has not only been a career highlight for all of us on the team, but it has been personally fulfilling, as well,” says Kitchell senior vice president Dan Pierce. “PCH has touched each of us at some point, whether directly with our own families or with our friends’ families.

“Being a part of this monumental hospital transformation, right down the road from Kitchell headquarters, was gratifying, exciting and even humbling. At different times during construction, we had more than a thousand workers, including subcontractors, on the job site. It was simply amazing.”

“Kitchell has done a great job. The company exemplifies collaboration, integrity and excellence, says David Cottle, executive director of planning, design and construction for PCH.

“I have been particularly impressed with the attention to the tiniest details to ensure the best possible quality. This has been a large project wedged into a residential neighborhood. Kitchell made it a top priority to plan and phase the work so that construction congestion had only a limited impact on the surrounding community.”

In addition to more than 1,000 workers on the site at one time, other noteworthy numbers of the PCH tower construction:

•               Number of days from ground breaking to grand opening: 1,107 calendar days

•               Construction man-hours worked:  3,206,803 through mid-May 2011

•               Wire (power): 7,500,000 feet

•               Concrete: 35,496 cubic yards

•               Rebar – 3,267,379 pounds

•               Dirt removed for the Tower basement: 75,000 cubic yards

•               Structural steel: 6,500 tons

•               Lobby/elevator mosaic:  450,000 1”x1” tiles