MLK Heritage Health Center is located at 2555 N. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Milwaukee, WI. Hunzinger served as the general contractor for Milwaukee Health Services Inc., the not-for-profit owner of multiple Community Healthcare Centers. Smith & Smith Associates, Inc., a small African American owned firm from Chicago, served as the project architects.
We had to use an earth retention system to complete the work because the site was challenging as the building extended to the sidewalk at both MLK Drive and Clark Streets. Overhead power lines had to be relocated to work safely within this very tight site. The project included a 24,000 square foot renovation to the existing facility and 9,000 square feet of new space by way of a three-story addition. Exam rooms were renovated and added, increasing service capacity by 30%. The project included general office and support space, conference room, kitchen and break room, and storage. The work was completed in phases and took place in an occupied environment. We took great care not to disturb any patient services throughout the job. Parking and building entrances had to be maintained to ensure that the clinic could function at 100% capacity throughout construction. The project successfully met the established 50% minority contracting and workforce goals.
This was a very rewarding project to work on and I was proud to be a part of it knowing that by completing this building, additional healthcare services were going to be offered in the neighborhood. The site posed some challenges because it was a very tight site with overhead power lines that had to be relocated. We also utilized minority owned businesses for a very large portion of the work, over 46% of all the work was completed by minority owned firms and almost half of the workforce was minority.
