When St. Joseph Regional Health Center decided they needed to add an urgent care facility in College Station, Texas, they chose Ramtech to become part of their project team, working with Ameritex Studio as their architect of record, and Vaughn Construction as their CM. The reason: Ramtech had a proprietary permanent modular building system that was superior to any modular system in the southwest, and Ramtech’s in-house design team was most qualified to provide a design assist engineering role. In order to lower cost, St. Joseph chose to utilize a design-build approach. This opened the door to Ramtech’s design team initiating programming sessions, conducting site investigations and developing a synergy with the client that carried forward throughout the project.
The building utilized Ramtech’s Accelerated Building System that places the walls and roof structure directly atop a concrete slab foundation. This “floor-less” approach to modular construction does away with the duplicity of a structural foundation and a separate floor structure. The Type II non-combustible structure utilizes recycled steel for both the structure and the envelope framing plus the roofing material is a white TPO single-ply membrane which qualifies as an Energy Star Product. The building was constructed utilizing a total of nine modular sections totaling 7,245 sf and the building’s exterior combines rough coursed stone, 2×4 limestone in both a stacked and running bond, and stucco which provided a variety of materials in each elevation. The main entrance is covered by a standing seam drive-through porte-cochere anchored by four limestone columns and a second pedestrian entrance is canvas covered.
While St. Joseph desired sustainable construction, they did not wish to invest in LEED certification. This led to regional and high recycled-content material selections aiding in cost savings. In addition, cost savings were achieved through the concurrent construction tracks of factory and site to receive the building. This compression of the schedule rendered approximately a 35% savings over conventional construction and allowed the clinic to begin generating revenue 4 months in advance of conventional construction.
A key to the project’s success was the cooperation that existed between Ameritex, Vaughn, Ramtech, and St. Joseph. It is this type of cooperation that leads to successful design-build projects. For more information concerning completed medical projects by Ramtech, contact us.
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Bill Barron works in Business Development for Ramtech Building Systems, Inc. He has worked at Ramtech for over 20 years serving the Education, Healthcare, and Government Markets.
