The main building of UNM Hospital will be demolished to make way for a proposed new Adult Acute Care Hospital as part of the UNM Health Sciences Center (UNMHSC) Master Plan.
The plan, under the direction of architecture firm Dekker, Perich and Sabbatini, says the UNMH main building is a special-use facility with an incompatible structural grid and outdated infrastructure. Though portions of the building would be salvageable, the costs of isolating them as stand-alone buildings and keeping them open during demolition are not feasible, according to the document.
UNMHSC spokesman Billy Sparks said it’s not possible to determine the cost of the construction at this stage of the Master Plan.
“In the sense of the Master Plan itself, cost would be determined at the time of construction,” Sparks said.
He said there are a variety of possible sources of funding from which the HSC could obtain funding.
“Things are typically done through a combination of bonds and capital outlay funds from the state as well as federal funds, which sometimes come into play,” he said.
Sparks said in addition to the Adult Acute Care Hospital, a children’s care hospital is also under consideration.
The plan also allows for the HSC to be developed into four distinct “districts,” including education, clinic, hospital and mixed. The mixed district will be developed by a public and private partnership rather than the UNMHSC. Possible uses include housing, retail and office space.
The proposed “districts” would make it easier for visitors and patients to navigate through the campus and incorporate necessary additional parking and open space, the plan said.
Paul Roth, executive vice president of UNMHSC, said the hospital has seen recent growth, but he said additional expansion is vital to continued success.
“Over the last 10 years, HSC has grown at an average annual rate of six percent,” he said. “Our campus has expanded to the west in order to meet the growing educational, clinical and research demands.”
There are already capacity problems in the HSC, said Carolyn Abeita, chairman of the HSC board of directors.
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“We’ve got a growing population. Existing facilities right now are at capacity or exceeding capacity,” she said. “That’s primarily the number one reason for what you see in the Master Plan, to accommodate the growth as the community expands.”
Dale Dekker of Dekker, Perich and Sabbatini said the plan will expand facilities in an ordered, constructive way.
“This plan reflects the need for growth, north of Lomas and at UNMH. Everything north of Lomas is going to respond to that growth. The state is going to grow by a million people over the next 25 years.”
