Featured image: Modular Construction at BJC HealthCare Phase III project in St. Louis features cold-formed steel (CFS) framing. Images courtesy of T.J. Wies Contracting, Inc.
In the heart of St. Louis, a 16-story tower is redefining the future of healthcare. As part of BJC HealthCare’s ambitious Campus Renewal, the new facility at Barnes-Jewish Hospital sets a new standard for medical excellence. But this transformative project isn’t just about creating a healing environment that elevates the experiences of patients and their families at one of the nation’s leading medical campuses — it’s also about construction.
As part of the hospital’s construction team, T.J. Wies Contracting, Inc., a member of the Steel Framing Industry Association (SFIA), is a standout. The company used prefabrication techniques to build hundreds of modular bathroom pods and headwalls, “setting a new standard for efficiency and quality,” a company online post says.
T.J. Wies Contracting prefabricated 277 bathroom pods and 224 headwalls for just-in-time delivery to the BJC HealthCare Phase III project in St. Louis.
T.J. Wies Contracting is the SFIA 2024 Industry Project Awards winner for its “Unique Use” of cold-formed steel (CFS) framing for the BJC Healthcare Phase III project. The SFIA Awards entry was submitted by Chris Sauer of T.J. Wies.
TJ Wies’ win was announced at the 2024 SFIA Awards ceremony recently held live and posted online. The SFIA 2024 Industry Project Awards focus on CFS manufacturing and construction. Designers, manufacturers, distributors and contractors entered a variety of projects in the competition.
Design Quality
Did this project make efficient use of metal framing products?
Since there were not any floors in these modular bathroom pods, the ceiling was the main support of structure. Modular bathrooms were engineered to support their own weight with full tile during hoisting process.
The bathroom pod’s cold-formed steel (CFS) framing system was engineered to be rigid enough to keep interior tile grout from cracking through the hoisting process.
The 2024 SFIA Awards judges were impressed with the project. They had not seen something like the use of CFS in this way on a modular construction project. “Other prefab projects were submitted, but this one stands out as very different from the rest,” the 2024 SFIA Awards judges said.
Installation Complexity
What difficulties existed on the project?
The entire modular package was built offsite, so all current onsite conditions had to be taken into consideration when delivering.
“We had to use the lowest profile carts to support the weight and avoid the previously installed overhead MEPs,” Sauer wrote in his award entry submission.
All cold-formed steel (CFS) walls were framed on a horizontal jig table to ensure consistency.
Crews added drywall, custom cut with CNC machines, and moved the assemblies with heavy equipment.
Manufacturing Complexity
Were special materials involved?
All CFS was ordered to required lengths to minimize or eliminate field cutting. The walls and ceilings of modular bathrooms and headwalls were framed with CFS and built as panels on horizontal jig tables.
During the project, T.J. Wies Contracting had more than 40 modular bathrooms in various stages of construction at any given time.
A ceiling assembly is laid in place atop the cold-formed steel (CFS) framed walls of a bathroom pod.
Overall Job Quality
How did the completed system turn out?
In his SFIA award submission, Sauer said that T.J. Wies’ work quality was “on point.”
“We had minimal punch list items and none of those were CFS issues,” he said.
Offsite crews working on the BJC HealthCare, Phase III modular package logged more than 44,000 labot-hours and reported zero injuries.
The T.J. Wies Contracting jig tables used on the BJC HealthCare project and created the stacks of cold-formed steel (CFS) walls shown.
Conversion to CFS
How was the conversion achieved?
By substituting some of the wood blocking for CFS strapping, the T.J. Wies team was able to avoid clashes between the steel studs and MEP runs in the wall cavities.
The delivery effort “was a well-oiled machine,” said Chris Sauer of T.J. Wies Contracting.
The BJC Campus Renewal, Phase III modular package, involved three SFIA member companies — ClarkDietrich and Negwer Materials, besides T.J. Wies Contracting, Inc.
BJC HealthCare
Phase III Modular Package
Barnes-Jewish Hospital Tower
1 Parkview Place
St. Louis, MO 63110Details:
608,000 sq.ft., 107 tons of cold-formed steel (CFS) used on the projectPEOPLE
Owner:
BJC HealthCareArchitect:
CannonDesignStructural Engineering Firm
Thornton TomasettiGeneral Contractor:
McCarthy Building CompaniesFraming Contractor:
T.J. Wies Contracting, T.J. Wies PrefabOther Partners
SFIA members ClarkDietrich and Negwer Materials
SFIA Industry Project Awards
The SFIA 2024 Industry Project Awards focus on cold-formed steel (CFS) manufacturing and construction. A panel of industry representatives judged all 2024 SFIA Awards entries based on the following criteria:
- Design Quality, such as the efficient and sustainable use of cold-formed steel (CFS) products
- Installation Complexity, focusing on conflict resolution, timeframe challenges, etc.
- Manufacturing Complexity, including custom orders, panelization, special material sourcing and more
- Overall Job Quality, including the quality of alignments, finishes and other attention to detail
- Conversion from Alternative Framing Material, reflecting how steel framing lowered a structure’s weight, or added stories, or helped lower the project’s builders’ risk insurance, etc.
About SFIA
The Steel Framing Industry Association (SFIA), a unique organization representing steel mills, coil coaters, stud and connector manufacturers, component fabricators, Cold-Formed Steel Engineers Institute (CFSEI) members, suppliers/distributors, contractors and others, provides members with exclusive access to technical cold-formed steel (CFS) framing services, including CFS certification, environmental product declarations, market data and analysis, technical design guides, specification review services, architectural services, the Steel Framing Learning Portal , the SFIA Awards and more. SFIA is an accredited ANSI Standards Development Organization. Follow SFIA on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Additional Resources
- SFIA Unveils 9 Winners of the 2024 Industry Project Awards
- SFIA Reveals 7 Winners of the 2023 Industry Project Awards in Online Ceremony
- Designers: Update to SFIA’s 2024 Tech Guide for the Latest CFS Load and Span Tables