Kaleida Health will hold a ceremonial groundbreaking Wednesday morning at 10 AM for the new John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital. Physicians, employees, donors and other dignitaries will be on hand to kick off construction on the new $270 million facility.
The Oishei Children’s Hospital will replace the current Women & Children’s Hospital on Bryant Street. The historic project will right-size and consolidate services in a 12-floor, 183-bed, free-standing, modern facility on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. It will be an integral part of the campus, linking with the Buffalo General Medical Center, the Gates Vascular Institute, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, the new UB Medical School, and the Conventus building.
Shepley Bulfinch Richardson & Abbott of Boston, one of the country’s top pediatric healthcare architects, designed the complex.
In August, Kaleida Health began preparation on the site, which is located on Ellicott and High Streets across from the Buffalo General Medical Center. Site preparation includes fencing the site, implementing a traffic plan, removing the asphalt from the parking lot, ordering steel and releasing the shop drawings for shoring, steel and outer walls.
The capital campaign for the new hospital continues to proceed as well. Nearly $42 million has been raised to date. In addition to this, $2.5 million has been raised to create endowments for some of the hospital’s family support programs including Stones Buddies (for chronically ill children), as well as a neonatal intensive care unit family resources endowment.
Construction is expected to take approximately 34 months to complete, with doors opening in 2017.