San Diego, CA – Armed with hope, imagination and crayons, around 25 young patients of Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego gathered recently to colorize a 4-foot by 8-foot mural depicting a child's cartoon version of the new $260-million Patient Care Pavilion, currently under construction by McCarthy Building Companies.
The new facility is being built on a 148,650-square-foot site at the southeast end of the Rady Children's Hospital Campus at 3020 Children's Way in the Kearny Mesa area of San Diego.
The hour-long “Color Our World” mural coloring event was held in the Activities Room at Rady Children's Hospital. Participants received a custom “construction dude” coloring book and a set of crayons upon their departure, courtesy of McCarthy.
The children, whose ages ranged from toddler to teen, artfully filled in the black and white lines with the guidance of 10 McCarthy construction crew members, all of whom are actively engaged in the construction of the new five-story, 279,000-square-foot health care facility. The final, colored version of the mural is being photographed and produced into a giant 8-foot by 16-foot laminated sign that will be mounted in front of the construction site, adjacent to the existing Rose Pavilion. The finished sign, to be erected by McCarthy in mid October, will be on display to the public until the new Patient Care Pavilion is complete in the summer of 2010.
“Allowing our construction crew members to have firsthand interaction with these severely ill or injured children brought new meaning to our mission of building this much-needed facility,” said Ron Hall, executive vice president of McCarthy Building Companies. “Many of our workers have kids themselves, and can relate to San Diego parents' desire to know their children will receive first-rate urgent care should they ever need it. For us, this project is all about the kids.”
The new Rady Children's Hospital Patient Care Pavilion will house a surgical center, 84 medical-surgical beds, a neonatal intensive care center, and a cancer center to aid in fulfilling the increasing demand for children's critical care in the San Diego area. Specifically, the facility will include 16 operating rooms with associated support departments, a 28-bed hematology and oncology unit, a 10-bed bone marrow transplant intensive care unit, a 32-bed neonatal intensive care unit, and 84 acuity adaptable medical surgery beds.
McCarthy Building Companies topped out steel framing for the Rady Children's Hospital Patient Care Pavilion in late July, several weeks ahead of schedule.
