Last beam in place for St. Luke’s Children’s Pavilion; next up a sky bridge

The Idaho Elks Children’s Pavilion at St. Luke’s structure is in place now, having arisen from a 36-foot deep hole since July-August 2017.

The final steel beam at the highest point was installed the week of Oct. 22, a week following the Oct. 17 ceremonial “final” beam signed by hundreds of St. Luke’s employees.

St. Luke’s Health System in the week of Nov. 7, 2016, started dismantling the Treasure Valley Pediatrics building at Jefferson Street and Avenue B as well as drilling the first column holes for the future Idaho Elks Children’s Pavilion at that site.

The tower crane that has been in place since June 9, 2017, will come down Oct. 27-29 and likely be relocated a couple blocks over to start work on the new St. Luke’s central plant, parking garage and shipping and receiving buildings – the first structures for the estimated $400 million, 680,000-square-foot expansion in downtown Boise over the next decade.

The next big lift will be a sky bridge that will cross over Avenue B to provide a passageway between the Children’s Pavilion and St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital. The sky bridge pieces were delivered Oct. 19-21 and will be assembled over the next two months and installed across Avenue B at the end of December, hospital spokeswoman Anita Kissée said.

The four-story, 100,000-square foot structure will now shift to masonry cladding of the exterior and mechanical installations inside with a targeted opening next summer.

“It’s going to go really fast,” said Kathryn Beattie, executive medical director of St. Luke’s Children Hospital. “The drywall is in on the first and second floors.”

The Children’s Pavilion will be an outpatient clinic enabling St. Luke’s to bring all its pediatric specialists to one location. They are now scattered in four locations, Beattie said.

“The kids can now stay in one place and all the doctors come to see them,” Beattie said.

That can mean children get all their treatments in the same building or stay in the same treatment room in the multi-disciplinary clinic, she said.

The Children’s Pavilion will have more than 100 treatment rooms with 60 to 70 pediatric specialists on site covering 22 specialties, Beattie said.

Beattie said the Boise arrangement is unique with the children’s hospital and outpatient clinic across the street from each other with doctors not even having to go outdoors to get from operating room to outpatient treatment rooms.

The $42 million project included $25 million in philanthropic donations. Hummel Architects is the architect and St. Luke’s is the general contractor.