A big crane moved the first pieces of structural steel into place on Tuesday afternoon, marking the start of a two-year expansion project for Syracuse's St. Joseph's Hospital.

The patient tower is being called Phase 2-B of the hospital's construction.  Phase 2-A was the new emergency room, and the tower will link it to the rest of the hospital on the 'backside,'  along Laurel Street and down Prospect Avenue toward Butternut.
Joe Scicchitano, St Joseph's Vice President for Facilities Management, says the new addition will include 14 new operating rooms, as well as 110 new private rooms for patients, which will be one and a half times as big as semi private rooms in the hospital now.

Even though it's being called a Patient Tower, the finished building will not be as tall as envisioned when they were drafting the project.  That's because of neighbor input.  "One of the things they'd come back and asked us," says Scicchitano, "is not to build a very tall building.  And so, we kind of used a stepped approach with our architects, King & King in Syracuse.  And we built the first part of Phase Two down low, the emergency services building. Now, we're kind of working our way up.  So by the time we're done it's not going to look like a giant monolithic structure."

Scicchitano points out that most of the construction work is being done with local firms, and about 400 long-term local construction workers.  When it's done, he says the expansion will employ another 250 healthcare workers.

Until then, there's lots to watch as the building goes up.  Right now, a 90-ton capacity crane is putting the first pieces of steel in place.  About mid-August, it wil be replaced by an even bigger crane, with 200-ton capacity, for the heavy lifting on the upper floors.