Kevcon, Inc.

Owner:

Department of Veterans Affairs

Scope Of Work

 This 20,000 SF renovation to an occupied mental health building involved a conversion into two mental health wards.  As these wards house acute mental health patients, the facilities required upgrading to comply with the latest guidelines for the treatment of mental health patients.  The facility was occupied during construction and the construction work required special attention to physical security measures, restricted access to patient wards, stringent infection control, and the close coordination of multiple subcontractors as well as hospital staff to ensure patient safety.  Work involved HVAC, electric, access control, interior finishes, and specialty security hardware and accessories.  The finished spaces are now being used as an example of how such spaces are to be constructed in the future.

In order to accommodate the needs of the patients and staff still occupying other portions of the building, the work was performed in two phases.  The first floor project work included new paint and ceilings; access card reader entry controls on the dorm rooms, at the exits, and entrances; surveillance monitors; lead abatement; renovated washrooms with suicide-resistant fixtures; and a new women’s bathroom in the female dorm.

The third floor houses the patients with the most serious care needs, and the work on this floor included a new air handler and ductwork, new paint, new hard ceilings, suicide-resistant bathrooms, suicide-resistant handrails, suicide-resistant door hardware, new seclusion rooms, new flooring, new security screens on all windows, and other measures proscribed by the latest edition of the Design Guide for Mental Health Facilities.