GLY Construction and Overlake Medical Center are marking the topping out milestone of the hospital’s East Tower this week.

The $250M, five-year Project FutureCare campus renewal initiative construction process included one year of logistical planning that ensured the medical center would continue to operate during construction.

Once complete, the tower will be the entrance to the emergency room, childbirth center, lab and pharmacy.

GLY, which has a 30-year working history with the hospital, supported Overlake during its pre-design phase in 2015 and joined the project team in 2016 with pre-construction and construction services. The project is set to be complete in 2022.

During Bisnow’s National Healthcare Pacific Northwest event in October, Overlake Medical Center President and CEO J. Michael Marsh told the audience that the hospital went out of its way to keep construction from affecting the patients’ experiences.

He said Overlake didn’t want to use the remodel as an excuse for a diminished customer experience, so the construction team planned ahead to avoid any patient service interruptions.

“Sure enough, the patient experience has gone up,” he said.