The new $1.3B Parkland Hospital (the nation’s largest hospital construction project) should be substantially completed in August and open to patients in early 2015 (now we're not suggesting you ever get sick, but if you must, try and wait until next year), says new Parkland construction SVP Lou Saksen (snapped at ULI event at the construction site last month). At the northeast corner of Harry Hines Boulevard and Medical District Drive, the 2.5M SF Parkland will completely replace the existing hospital across the street.

Going for bids at the height of the cruddy economy was beneficial for Parkland, Lou says, because the hospital secured a fabulous price from the contractors and subs who were eager to work. Construction started last month on the new Skybridge that will span Harry Hines to connect with UT Southwestern Medical Center and Children’s Medical Center.

It isn’t surprising that building a hospital that size from the ground up would take awhile (about four years, give or take), but your eyes will pop when you compare it to another architectural DFW icon: AT&T Stadium. Both are about the same size, Lou says, and each project also cost about the same and is on about the same size piece of land. But, while the Cowboys have been making us sick, the New Parkland hopes to heal us. (If fewer Cowboys ended up there during the season, we might be in better shape.)

Other tidbits about the hospital: it will include 227k SF of medical/surgical clinics, 27 operating rooms, 865 beds, and 48 labor and delivery rooms. In its first year of opening, the Parkland ER is projected to serve about 250,000 patients as one of the largest ERs in the country. About 10,000 babies are born at Parkland annually, Lou says. That means that Parkland accounts for one of every 250 Americans born.