Leaders celebrate Winter Park Memorial Hospital's Nicholson Pavilion 'topping out'

Leaders from Winter Park and Florida Hospital gathered Tuesday to celebrate a significant construction milestone at the Winter Park Memorial Hospital Nicholson Pavilion, which will add 140 all-private rooms and a new lobby when it opens next year.

Nearly 30,000 people live in Winter Park ' and thousands more in surrounding areas ' and the new Nicholson Pavilion will allow the hospital to meet the community's growing needs.

'Winter Park Memorial Hospital was founded more than 60 years ago with the goal of creating a world-class hospital to serve the community's health needs close to home,' Jennifer Wandersleben, administrator of Winter Park Memorial Hospital. 'It is because of the generous support of Tony and Sonja Nicholson, Brasfield & Gorrie and RLF architects and the dozens of men and women who have been working tirelessly to give Winter Park this stunning Pavilion, that we are one step closer to delivering the expanded health care services that this rapidly growing area needs.'

The Nicholson Pavilion will allow the hospital to convert the majority of its existing rooms into private patient rooms ' today's gold standard in care. The expansion will also include private beds for orthopaedic care, surgical and other services.

Physicians and clinical teams perform nearly 9,500 surgeries each year. The hospital also logs more than 75,000 outpatient visits and more than 16,000 inpatient admissions annually.

Winter Park Memorial Hospital is home to destination services such as the Dr. P. Phillips Baby Place, Florida Hospital for Women, the Cancer Institute, Orthopaedic Institute and the Minimally Invasive and Robotic Surgical Center.

The expansion has been generously supported by several philanthropic donors, including Tony and Sonja Nicholson.

'A new patient pavilion with all private rooms has been a real need for our community for a long time, so we're thrilled to reach this significant milestone,' said Tony Nicholson. 'Sonja and I, along with the Winter Park Hospital Foundation board, are excited for this pavilion to be available for our friends, family and neighbors, and we appreciate the efforts that have brought us to this point.'

The Nicholson's joined the Winter Park Memorial and construction teams for Tuesday's 'topping out' ceremony, marking that the building has reached its highest point. Crews from general contractor Brasfield & Gorrie hoisted a tree decorated with peacock feathers ' Winter Park's community symbol ' atop the structure.

Crews have spent more than 40,000 hours working on the Nicholson Pavilion. Other construction notables on the project include

• 10,000 cubic yards of concrete,
• 979 tons of reinforcing steel and
• 373,000 square feet of formwork

'With this milestone made possible by the hard work and dedication of our employees, subcontractors and partners, we are one step closer to delivering this facility to meet the needs of the community. We are grateful for our longstanding relationship with Florida Hospital and look forward to completion of this project in 2019,' said Brasfield & Gorrie Vice President and Division Manager Tim Johnson.