WALTON CONST 9/17/07 2:04 PM Page 234

WALTON CONSTRUCTION
The new Health Sciences Building at the
University of Missouri-Kansas City will pro-
vide more space for the nursing and phar-
macy schools.

Firm Extends its Expertise

Walton Construction used its dedication to partnerships and client service to ensure the University of
Missouri-Kansas City’s Health Sciences Building was built with quality.

By Staci Davidson HSB provides 227,649 gross square feet of instructional,

B y putting clients’ needs first and striving to be “easy

to work with,” Walton Construction says it has creat-
ed many “dynamic and effective partnerships.”
These have allowed it to complete a wide variety of proj-
ects for an array of businesses, industries and organizations.
This ability to form strong relationships and its full-serv-
ice approach to construction was critical, it says, in sec-
uring work on the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s
Health Sciences Building (HSB) project.
“Walton wanted a project like this to expand its experi-
ence,” says David Wille, project manager. “We went after it
aggressively – it was a hard bid, and we did
Walton Construction – UMKC
Health Sciences Building all we could to have the best proposal. The
www.waltonbuilt.com company wanted an educational science
Contract: $43 million facility under its belt.”
Site: Kansas City, Mo.
Services: Construction Walton started the $43 million project
management in February 2005 and completed its work
David Wille, PM: “We have this September. Located on the Univers-
found the main way to ensure a
successful project is to just prac- ity’s “Hospital Hill” section of the campus,
tice [ease of doing business].” just south of the School of Medicine, the
research and administrative/support office space for the
UMKC Schools of Nursing and Pharmacy, as well as the
university’s life sciences partners.
The university’s primary goal for this building is to pro-
mote better human health, but it also hopes the new facili-
ty will alleviate work force shortages through increased cap-
acity, both for healthcare professionals and research scien-
tists. With the new structure, the school says the School of
Pharmacy is expected to increase its enrollment of 345 by
more than 100 students, and the School of Nursing’s annu-
al enrollment is anticipated to nearly double to 600 students.
“We finished on schedule with the addition of a change
order,” Wille says. “Our goal was to get the students in school
by the fall semester and we accomplished that. It was im-
portant that we ensure classes could go on as scheduled.”
Much-Needed Space
The university also believes the new five-story facility will
deliver much needed lab space for the region. According to
the school, the labs were designed to enable faculty

234 ■ CONSTRUCTION TODAY ■ OCTOBER 2007