CT hospital’s $950M tower is a whopper, ‘most advanced’ in nation. What it will look like and when.
Kenneth R. Gosselin
A $1 billion-plus investment in Hartford Hospital over the next decade is spurring an unprecedented building boom not seen in the hospital’s 172-year history — with its centerpiece now coming squarely into focus: a $950 million in-patient and surgical tower that will not only give the hospital a more prominent place in the city’s skyline but, hospital leaders say, among hospitals across the country.
The tower, expected to open in 2031, will rise 14 stories, double the height of the next tallest building on the 70-acre campus.
The tower will be built on a one-acre patch now used for valet parking near the corner of Seymour and Jefferson streets, its half a million square feet of space so massive that the upper floors will need to be built out over the top of the neighboring Jefferson Building.
Construction on the tower is expected to begin next year and will include 216 private-room patient beds — increasingly sought for hospital stays — 20 surgical areas organized around recovery rooms and specialties by floor, all outfitted with cutting-edge technology.
“So this is a massive investment in the future of Hartford Hospital,” said Jeffrey A. Flaks, president and chief executive of Hartford HealthCare, the parent of Hartford Hospital and seven others in Connecticut. “And this building will be the most advanced, most sophisticated hospital building anywhere in the country.”
Harford HealthCare’s plans to spend more than $1 billion over a decade at Hartford Hospital have been well-known since at least the end of 2024, with a new, in-patient tower considered a significant part of those plans. But the specifics weren’t disclosed until now, as financing is falling into place.
The reshaping of the hospital’s campus seeks to strike a balance among lifting the hospital’s national profile, providing more efficiently for the health care needs of the local community and recognizing the reality of an aging population that needs increasingly sophisticated care.
The hospital’s $1 billion-plus plan also includes other major projects, some already in construction.
The projects include a much-needed expansion of the hospital’s emergency department; a Hartford HealthCare-Go Health urgent care center with more services than is typical; and a 1,600-space parking garage that is part of a larger “arrival center” with a restaurant and conference space for up to 500.
The hospital also intends to launch the redevelopment of three historic structures at the northeast corner of Washington and Jefferson streets later this year. The project will anchor a growing presence of community clinic space in historic structures along the north side of Jefferson Street.
“This is a generational moment for us,” Flaks said. “This will position us for decades to come.”
Flaks comments on the details of the new tower came in an interview with The Courant prior to a public announcement Saturday at Hartford HealthCare’s annual Black & Red Gala fundraiser, the hospital’s largest of the year.
The in-patient tower has been part of the hospital planning since at least 2021 when an $80 million addition to the Bliss Building was completed, adding critical care space.
The addition came on the heels of the 2016 opening of the $150 million Bone & Joint Institute orthopedic center. Both projects helped reshape not only the hospital’s expanding capabilities but were intended to project a modern image of a destination for increasingly sophisticated health care.
In addition to new technology, the planned tower will increase the percentage of overall private rooms from the hospital’s current 60% to about 80%, hospital officials said The hospital now has 867 patient beds.
Flaks said the projects will be financed primarily through bond funding supported by the corporation’s endowment and other philanthropic gifts.
‘A variety of options’
The expansion and reorganization of the hospital’s emergency department comes as it annually treats about 110,000 patients, a number that is forecast to grow in the coming years, hospital officials said.
The department already is seeing a severe space crunch, with some patients routinely seen in hallways,. According to hospital officials, the emergency department has 108 rooms and averages 305 patients a day.
Cheryl Ficara, the president of Hartford Hospital, said plans call for an expansion into the adjacent Conklin Building into space where as many as 30 beds will be set aside for patients who are “under observation.”
“And why that’s so important is because many of the people that come into the emergency department, probably, I would say only 25 to 28% are admitted,” Ficara said. “The rest are on observation and will be transitioning back out.”
The exact number of beds that will be added has yet to be determined.
The entrance to the emergency department also is getting a makeover, with separate entrances being created for walk-in patients and those transported by ambulance, Ficara said.
In addition, the hospital expects to open in June a Hartford HealthCare-Go Health urgent-care clinic in the recently-acquired former Girl Scouts of Connecticut headquarters at the corner of Washington Street and Retreat Avenue.
The urgent care center is seen as relieving some of the pressure on the emergency department, giving patients another option when they don’t necessarily need emergency department care.
The clinic, expected to open in June, will offer expanded services such as the opportunity for blood work and more sophisticated imaging not typically available at the hospital’s other urgent care locations.
“We’re working with the community very closely to be able to educate them on the variety of options,” Ficara said.
Arrival Center
The new parking garage — running the length of the south side of Jefferson Street between Washington and Seymour streets — will add about 1,000 new spaces to help ease a longstanding parking crunch at the hospital.
Built in two phases on the site of a now-demolished garage and a former gas station, it is expected to gradually open beginning in 2027. The valet service also will be based in the garage.
The garage also will anchor what the hospital describes as an arrival center.
The venue also will include a restaurant on Seymour Street and a conference center located near the corner Washington and Jefferson streets.
The conference center is expected to accommodate up to 500 people — a size that has the potential to attract national meetings and bring more visitors to the city of Hartford, Flaks said.
“So this is all part of that broader strategy to really have Hartford Hospital be magnetic, to be a destination for research, teaching, innovation, clinical discovery,” Flaks said. “And it just adds another piece of the puzzle that we need to be able to elevate and be competitive with anyone across the country to host meetings of this scale. So we’re very excited about that.”
The parking garage will be connected to the new tower via a skywalk that will lead to the tower’s two-story lobby, the new main entrance to the hospital.
And as construction of the new tower starts to take shape, two concourses — one interior, one exterior — will be built to connect all the structures at the heart of the campus: the new tower, the Jefferson Building, the emergency department, the Conklin Building and the High Building — now the main entrance.
“The internal concourse allows patients, families, colleagues to move patients, products — everything — throughout the buildings without the need to access any other pathway,” Keith Grant, vice president of operations for the Hartford region of Hartford HealthCare, said. “It becomes the outer spine of the building.”
An exterior concourse will overlook redesigned landscaping, with a new “healing garden” the focal point.
Honoring historic properties
Up until a few years ago, Hartford Hospital came under intense criticism for its poor stewardship of historic structures on its campus and allowing them to become blighted.
The hospital met with strong opposition in 2023 from neighborhood leaders and preservationists when it moved to demolish a historic, yet decaying, 1920s apartment building at the corner of Washington and Jefferson streets.
Today, plans call for the building and two neighboring ones — primarily their facades — to be incorporated into a new community-based clinical space. Those plans are evidence that the hospital says respect the past while also looking to the future.
The hospital also points to the $2 million-plus renovation 1879 Queen Anne-style house on Jefferson Street. The house, which had fallen into disrepair, was singled out as one of the most notable properties when the Jefferson-Seymour National Historic District was formed in 1979.
The hospital’s evolving perspective on historic structures also was evident in reversing a plan to demolish the historic, 1920s Hall-Wilson Laboratory in 2021. Instead, the hospital took the unusual step of converting the interior of the brownstone structure into an electrical substation plant, in a $23 million project.
While most efforts at incorporating historic structures into a modern hospital campus have been focused along Jefferson, Ficara, Hartford Hospital’s president, said the hospital also is now looking along Retreat Avenue.
“All the buildings that we own that are historic and need work, if you will, it’s a partnership of making sure from a historic perspective, that we honor them,” Ficara said. “But, at the same time, renovate them and then use them for today’s day and age, and I think that is very possible.”
Brian Zahn
HAMDEN — Two deteriorating bridges over Lake Whitney — rated by the state as being in “serious” condition — need to be replaced.
According to town documents, the total estimated cost of the project is $11.1 million, but state funds will cover the costs of construction while the town will fund the design phase.
The selected engineering consultant, who will oversee a public input and design process, received unanimous approval from the Legislative Council’s Engineering, Development and Municipal Planning Committee but still needs a final OK from the full council on Monday.
As part of the $887,883 contract, SLR International Corporation would manage a public engagement process and subsequent design work for the replacement of the Waite Street and Mather Street bridges, which intersect over Lake Whitney
“The things that we valued were the community engagement strategies, designs that align with the town’s Complete Streets Policy and environmentally-sensitive design practices,” said Town Engineer Stephen White, who noted he recused himself from the bidding process because of a conflict of interest.
White said the town will take on no new debt to fund the contract.
Eileen O’Neill, a resident of the area, said she participated in a public input session about plans to rebuild the bridges in 2008 and neighbors shared their desire to preserve the area as “an urban-surburban forest area, which actually is a jewel to that part of Hamden and for those neighborhoods, for people to get out into nature.”
“The priorities to us were that we have a woonerf-style shared roadway design for walkers, runners, bicyclists, birders, photographers,” she said, referencing a Dutch design concept in which urban spaces are accessible to pedestrians that inspired the design for the planned redesign of nearby New Haven’s Long Wharf Park.
Council member Sarah Gallagher, D-4, asked about whether there are plans to preserve the wildlife in the area as well as the drinking water collected by the Regional Water Authority.
“I really want to see with this project, we don’t end up with a mega bridge that changes the feel of the area,” she said, adding that she heard from many residents that during the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic that they took advantage of the bridges to experience nature locally.
White said he imagines the bridges featuring a mixed-use recreational path, but the final project will be dependent upon what the design team develops.
White said the expected timeline for construction, once that phase begins, would be two to three years. According to documents submitted to the council, Waite and Mather Streets will be closed during their respective bridge replacement projects, but only one roadway will be closed at a time.
PORTLAND — State officials have pushed back the deadline to
decide on a
proposed 4-megawatt solar facility along the Glastonbury border.
North
Haven-based Greenskies Clean Energy has petitioned the
Connecticut Siting Council to allow for the construction of a
4-megawatt solar photovoltaic electric-generating facility on 17 acres of a
41.9-acre parcel along Glastonbury Turnpike in Portland. The project site would
be accessed from Old Maids Lane in South Glastonbury and is located just south
of Nayaug Elementary School.
Other solar projects by Greenskies include a
1.2-megawatt facility on Lake Street in Manchester that was approved
by the Siting Council last week, as well as a
solar farm for Connecticut's state colleges and municipal projects
in Bethel,
Fairfield, New
Haven, and Manchester.
Greenskies filed its petition in October, with plans
detailing a 7,462-module array surrounded by a 7-foot chain link security
fence. A narrative dated Oct. 27 bills the proposed facility as conforming to
all relevant standards while providing "multiple benefits" to
Portland and the state through supplying renewable energy and supporting
the electrical grid.
The town of Glastonbury issued a letter to the Siting
Council in December stating that officials were supportive of renewable energy
but concerned about the facility's potential impacts to the abutting
school, and asked the council to "mitigate, to the furthest extent
possible, the potential detrimental impacts of the facility to the school and
to the surrounding Glastonbury neighborhoods."
In March, the Siting Council requested a six-month extension
from the parties involved in the petition, all of whom consented. Originally
scheduled for this month, the approved extension pushed the council's deadline
for a final decision to Oct. 22.
In December, the Siting Council awarded party status to the
town of Glastonbury and intervenor status to an Old Maids Lane resident,
allowing both parties certain privileges during the petition process. The
council also approved Glastonbury's request for a public hearing that was held
in March, though public comment on the petition will be accepted until May
7.
Throughout 2026, the Siting Council has held meetings
and issued interrogatories to gather information on the project. The council
closed its evidentiary record on April 7, and has a deadline to issue a
proposed findings of fact on May 7.
In response to a filing by Glastonbury, a representative for
Greenskies said in a March 5 memo that the developer would agree to avoid
equipment and vehicular traffic on Old Maids Lane during student drop-off and
pick-up times at Nayaug Elementary.
A visual impact assessment dated June 2025, conducted on
behalf of Greenskies, states that solar panel visibility outside of the project
site would be limited to a specific location near the school entrance and a
field north of Old Maids Lane. The developer's response to a series of
questions from the intervenor, dated March 5, states that it would not provide
vegetative screening to the north of the site, as there would be no visual
impact from the school and neighborhood.
The October narrative from Greenskies states that the
site has an existing apple orchard planted from prior to 1934 that is now past
its peak production. USDA soil maps indicate that approximately 1.8 acres of
the site fall within mapped prime farmland, though the relevant area is
currently used as a gravel pit and extensive soil disturbance from quarry
operations have left it unsuitable for agriculture.
Greenskies has proposed planting a pollinator seed mix in
the mapped prime farmland and a meadow seed mix elsewhere to "promote
long-term soil health," as stated in the narrative.
Stamford High's $27.5M renovation plan includes 15 new science labs, new exterior walls, windows
STAMFORD — A $27.5 million plan to update science labs
and replace the outside walls and windows of the 1971 portion of Stamford
High School has received a thumbs up from a subcommittee of the
city’s Board
of Education.
The school board’s Operations Committee unanimously approved
the educational specifications for the project on Tuesday. The budget estimate
for the work includes a 60% reimbursement rate from the state that would cover
about $14.5 million of the project. The rest of it, about $13 million, would be
be paid for by the city.
However, the state still needs to sign off on the project,
which also needs approval from other local Stamford boards.
Katherine
LoBalbo, director of school construction, said the plan is to submit the
project for state approval by June 30, which is the annual deadline for such
submissions. If all goes to plan, construction could begin in the summer of
2028.
Board of Education members supported the plan, which would update a part of the school in need of modernization.
Travis Schnell, principal architect for the
Mount Kisco, N.Y.-based firm KG+D, said the exterior of the 1971 part of
the school is in need of renovation. The school campus also includes the
original 1927 building and an addition in 2005.
Schnell displayed images of the building during the
presentation that showed loose mortar, cracked sills and deteriorating sealant
on the outside walls, which are covered by a 4-inch brick veneer.
“All of that contributes further to ongoing water
infiltration problems, which only further damage the building, that gets worse
over time the longer it goes unchecked,” said Schnell, who added that the
outside walls do not have insulation.
The second major part of the work would be updating the
school’s science labs to meet the state’s Next Generation Science Standards.
The current science lab layout at the high school is too static and does not
meet the state’s standards, Schnell said.
The renovation, he said, would convert the existing science
labs into 15 new spaces: eight universal labs for biology, physics and Earth
science; four chemistry labs; and three STEM labs for robotics, coding, design
and computing. Further, the new spaces would include portable tables to allow
for group instruction or lectures as well as various lab stations.
“This is a gut renovation job,” he said. “Walls will be
shifting, and we’ll be utilizing the space as much as possible.”
The cost to replace Stamford High School entirely with a
building of the same size would cost roughly $290 million, Schnell said.
“The greenest thing you can do is to reuse your current
infrastructure and to work with it because you’re diverting a lot of stuff from
the landfill,” he said.