The new tower at Northside Hospital Gwinnett is still on track for completion in 2025, but after consultations with the Federal Aviation Administration the structure will be two stories shorter than originally planned, hospital officials said.
In late December, Northside officials announced that they had received approval to add seven stories onto the project at its Lawrenceville campus for a total of 17, which would have made the tower the tallest building in Gwinnett County.
But after consultations between Northside and the FAA, a decision was made to lower the tower by two stories — 27 feet — to ensure flight safety since the Gwinnett County Airport at Briscoe Field is nearby.
“We’ve agreed to reduce the tower by two stories to make sure it’s safe for flight plans,” Northside Director of Facilities Planning Steve Aslinger said. “We’re excited to move forward ... and the project is still on track.”
Aslinger said despite the reduction in floors, Northside’s plan is still to add more than 300 beds to the Lawrenceville campus, bringing the total to 696 when the project is complete. That will make Lawrenceville the largest facility in the Northside system, surpassing the Atlanta campus, which has 622 beds.
“We’ll get there,” Aslinger said of reaching a total of 696 beds for the Lawrenceville campus. “We just have to reorganize (the plan). It’s going to look a little different.”
Aslinger said the reduction of 27 feet will leave the new tower at 230 feet.
A third of the beds in the tower will be used for critical care, which will replace the original intensive care unit that was built at Northside Gwinnett in the 1980’s, according to Aslinger. The intensive care rooms will be larger than what the current ones with upgrades to meet patient needs.
The remaining two-thirds of the new beds in the tower will be split between intermediate and acute care patients.
The new tower is located between the existing hospital and the new medical office building, which Aslinger said is scheduled to open in May, as is a new parking deck on the campus.
Read the full story from the Gwinnett Daily Post.
