Council Report: Planned Texas Health Harris tower could be 14 stories tall

Surgical suite rendering at new tower 

HOSPITAL TOWER HEIGHT CHANGE

The largest construction project in Texas Health Systems just got bigger – or at least it could get bigger in the future.

At its Tuesday meeting the Fort Worth City Council approved a zoning change for the new Texas Health Systems Hospital Tower at the northwest corner of Terrell Avenue and Henderson Avenue. The change allows the building to now be 14 stories tall.

Texas Health Systems is constructing a 10-story tower, and the zoning change gives them permission to add four more stories in the future, should the need arise.

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The expansion will feature a nine-story patient bed tower and major modernization of surgical services. The top floor of the current project, set to begin in September, will be a mechanical floor, which allows for future construction on the top of the tower with minimal disruption.

The new surgical patient tower will add 15 new, large modernized surgical suites that will accommodate complex surgeries, a new pre-operative and post-operative services unit and 144 new patient rooms to the main Texas Health Fort Worth campus.

The $300 million dollar project is expected to be completed in late 2021. The first patients are expected to be seen in early 2022.

Texas Health Systems officials said the need for the expansion arose as a result of Fort Worth ranking seventh in population growth of all U.S. cities. Texas Health Fort Worth’s service area includes residents from 42 Zip codes with a population of more than a million people in five counties.

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“We’ve always been committed to providing compassionate, advanced care for the people we serve, and we proudly do that every day,” said Joseph DeLeon, president of Texas Health Fort Worth. “But the communities we serve have grown by almost 300,000 in the past 15 years, meaning we have to grow as well. We want to be able to provide care to anyone who comes to us in their time of need.”

Texas Health Fort Worth is the fourth-busiest hospital in Texas and cares for more stroke patients than any other in the state. The hospital also ranks second in neurology and third in cardiology cases overall in Texas. Its Level II trauma center, one of only two in Tarrant County, serves 23 counties west of Fort Worth.

Design elements of the new building will include the use of natural light, indoor and outdoor spaces for visitors, artwork and a home-like soothing environment. There will also be family-centered rooms so loved ones can stay close to the patients.