Building for Healthcare Systems in Boulder, Louisville and Longmont

Healthcare owners here rarely get an empty site. A hospital addition goes up beside operating rooms, a clinic expansion happens above a pharmacy that has to stay open, and an outpatient pavilion is squeezed between a parking structure and a creek drainage. We build for hospital systems, physician groups and outpatient operators in the Boulder Valley who need construction that respects patients first and the schedule second.

Hospitals are large employers here. Boulder's 2022 financial report lists Boulder Community Health at 2,360 employees, and Longmont's 2020 report lists Longmont United Hospital at 671, so a hospital project draws attention from the community and from reviewers who have seen good and bad work. We bring a quiet, methodical crew culture to that setting: clear infection control rules, tight communication with facility staff and no tolerance for shortcuts around life safety.

Infection control, life safety and patient protection

Before any wall comes down in or near an occupied care area, an infection control risk assessment sets the precautions the crew must follow. We build the barriers, negative air, pressure monitoring and cleaning protocols that the assessment requires, and we train every worker on the rules, including the ones who are on site for only a day. Cleaning logs and pressure readings are kept and available to the hospital's infection prevention staff.

Life safety work has its own discipline. Fire alarm, sprinkler and egress impairments are planned with the hospital's safety officer, signed off before they happen and restored the same shift where possible. Interim measures, such as fire watches and temporary egress signage, are written into the plan. We also keep medical gas, vacuum and electrical shutdowns to windows the clinical staff have approved, with a rollback plan if a procedure runs long.

Energy rules and hospital exemptions in Boulder

Boulder's 2024 Energy Conservation Code requires new commercial projects to be all-electric or to use other non-fossil sources, with exceptions that include hospitals, labs, commercial cooking, emergency generators and large S-1 occupancies with constant vehicle traffic. Projects that use the mixed-fuel exceptions must perform 15 percent better than ASHRAE 90.1-2022, compared with 10 percent for all-electric buildings. A hospital owner therefore has a real choice about how to serve steam, sterilization and domestic hot water, and the answer affects utility rooms, backup systems and operating cost.

Neighboring towns are on different editions. Louisville adopted the 2024 International Building Code effective December 6, 2025, and Longmont's own page lists the 2024 International Codes as adopted. We confirm each project's edition and the review path, and we put the energy decision in front of the owner and engineer early, since moving from gas to electric after the drawings are done is expensive. Our healthcare construction team handles those conversations during design.

Campuses that are changing: what the planning facts say

One large change is under way in Louisville. The Redtail Ridge approval, a 5 to 1 council vote reported in August 2024, covers 389 acres along U.S. 36 and the Northwest Parkway, with plans that include relocating Avista Adventist Hospital, an industrial and medical research park and more than 500,000 square feet of office space. Moving a hospital is a program in itself, covering a new building, a transition of operations and a decision about the old site, and we are glad to be involved early in that sequence. See our notes on Redtail Ridge.

Elsewhere, older campuses grow in place. A 2012 BizWest report described the Lafayette medical center as having more than 200 beds and room to grow, and that is the kind of statement we would confirm directly with the owner before assuming it, since a decade changes a campus. The point for any such site is that expansion needs utilities, parking and helicopter or ambulance access worked out alongside the building, and our hospital building experience starts there.

Work we keep under close control

In a care environment, the fewer unfamiliar faces the better. We schedule and supervise the site concrete, structure, framing, drywall and finish carpentry trade partners where the project calls for them, so that the crew on your campus is known to us and to your security staff. Badging, background checks and orientation are handled by us for the entire crew, and substitutes are kept to a minimum.

That control matters most in the sensitive phases: demolition next to occupied space, slab removal, tie-ins and ceiling work above patient rooms. We also keep protective equipment, air scrubbers and monitoring gear on site, which means a barrier can be rebuilt immediately after an incident rather than after a delivery. For outpatient and physician office work, our medical office construction practice uses the same crews with a lighter set of precautions.

Where healthcare budgets move

The mechanical, electrical, plumbing and medical gas systems take the largest share of a healthcare budget, and they carry the longest lead times. Imaging suites add shielding, vibration and structural requirements, and surgery suites add pressurization, redundancy and filtration. Each of these appears as a line in our estimate with clear assumptions, and we show what the owner is paying for in each room type, so there are fewer surprises when programming changes.

Phasing adds cost because work in an occupied hospital proceeds in smaller steps with more protection and more coordination. We price it in rather than leaving it to a change order later. The same goes for temporary facilities. When an outpatient clinic must stay open, we plan the temporary relocation, the reconfiguration and the final move as separate scopes, usually under construction management at risk, so the owner sees real costs as the design evolves.

Neighboring work in the same buyer family

Healthcare owners often manage projects for other users as well. Public hospital districts and county health agencies share many requirements with government and public sector owners, including open procurement and public records, and university-affiliated medical programs have much in common with education institutions for research and teaching space.

On the commissioning side, a hospital wants every system tested, documented and trained before it takes occupancy, and we treat that as part of the schedule rather than an afterthought. The same group that built the shell is in the room when the building is balanced, tested and walked with the owner's engineers. Where a project spans a campus, we also plan for infrastructure upgrades that benefit later phases, such as chilled water or electrical capacity, so the next project does not tear up the same road again.

Tell us about the campus

Share the department, the floor and the date the space has to be back in service. We will set up a planning conversation with your facilities and infection prevention team.

Questions Owners Ask

How do you keep an occupied hospital running during a renovation?

Through a written infection control plan, physical barriers, planned shutdown windows approved by the clinical team, and daily communication with the facility staff. We assign one person to coordinate all outages with the charge nurse or department lead. Work that creates dust, noise or vibration is scheduled in coordination with procedures, and we stop if a monitored pressure reading drifts.

Do you work under construction management at risk for healthcare?

Yes, and often by preference. A hospital's design evolves with clinical input, and a construction manager at risk can price in stages as drawings develop and manage the work in occupied zones. We commit to a guaranteed maximum price once the scope is defined enough to price honestly.

How does Boulder's all-electric rule apply to a hospital?

The city's 2024 energy code lists hospitals among the exceptions to the all-electric requirement for new commercial buildings. Projects that use the mixed-fuel exceptions must perform 15 percent better than ASHRAE 90.1-2022, and the owner and engineer should decide early which route suits the facility. We help price both options.

Can you build medical office space on a speculative basis?

We can, for developers or health systems building outpatient space to lease. The key variables are the tenant mix, imaging and procedure rooms, parking and the amount of improvement allowance. We build a core and shell with the infrastructure for medical use, and we tailor the interiors when a tenant signs.

What's the first thing you do on a new healthcare job?

We meet the owner's facilities and infection prevention leaders and agree on the risk assessment, the barriers and the shutdown protocol. Then we walk the area with the design team to confirm what is behind each wall and above each ceiling. Surprises in an old hospital are the main schedule risk, and we want to find them before the barriers go up.

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More Industries We Serve

Browse the rest of our industries we serve pages for Boulder and nearby Colorado communities, or contact us to talk through your project.