06/21/2018
UAMS has a long history of providing medical care as the state of Arkansas’ only teaching hospital. In 1951, plans began to move the University Hospital to its current location on West Markham Street in Little Rock. In 1956 the new hospital, what is now referred to as the Central Building, was complete and operational. The Central Building housed all the hospital’s and the University’s departments and was designed in the pre-air conditioning era. Today the Central Building contains the majority of the UAMS administration and department offices.
Stuck Associates was chosen to help facilitate mandatory code upgrades of the Central Building and a patient care suite renovation on the 5th floor of the building. The State Fire Marshal required upgrades be completed in the building so that it would comply with the current codes governing high rise buildings. This required Stuck Associates to design new smoke-proof elevator lobbies, upgrade the existing stairwell pressurization, replace the existing 2 pipe air conditioning system with a 4-pipe system, install a code compliant fire suppression and fire alarm system, and upgrade the elevators in the building to the current state elevator code. In the suite renovation, Stuck Associates converted the space into a 12-bed postnatal care suite. The existing conditions and space limitations required the design team to develop creative design solutions for providing adequate patient space, support space, and mechanical accommodations.
