Ground was broken today on an $200 expansion of the OSU Medical Center complex downtown. The main part of the project will be a conversion of the former state office complex into a new VA hospital. Also included a is new psychiatric hospital and parking garage.

https://3gz8cg829c.execute-api.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/prod/image-renderer/original/full/1600/center/80/73995e6c-ed63-43d7-b0e6-6129379edd07-TulsaVAhospitalrenderingsmaller.jpg

https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/downtown-tulsa-va-hospital-attracting-attention-for-collaboration/article_f7923f4e-2c4b-11ec-b505-0bed037a15a8.html

I had no idea OSU was a partner in this. Good stuff! I'm sure moving to Tulsa will help them recruit talent as compared to Muskogee. And I know it will be convenient for quite a few folks that live in town. I never quite understood why it was in Muskogee to begin with

I had no idea OSU was a partner in this. Good stuff! I'm sure moving to Tulsa will help them recruit talent as compared to Muskogee. And I know it will be convenient for quite a few folks that live in town. I never quite understood why it was in Muskogee to begin with

Between OSUHSC, OSU Med Center and the VA Hospital this will be one of the bigger medical complexes in the state. While not on the same scale as OU Health Center in OKC the foundation is there for it to eventually be a similar economic engine. Also great that it is in a part of downtown that hasn't seen as much growth and has room to grow north on the surface parking around the state office buildings and east of the OSU Med Center along Houston.

Why do I feel that if the same thing had been proposed in OKC there would be numerous comments here decrying the design with the setback and lack of street interaction? That certainly has and does occur with new developments in the OU Health Center area.

Why do I feel that if the same thing had been proposed in OKC there would be numerous comments here decrying the design with the setback and lack of street interaction? That certainly has and does occur with new developments in the OU Health Center area.

The buildings in the rendering aren't new. There will be a new psychiatric hospital building and garage, but that's not what is shown.

The buildings in the rendering aren't new. There will be a new psychiatric hospital building and garage, but that's not what is shown.

Exactly, they are renovating existing buildings and turning it into a hospital. Future expansions will be built on the parking lots surrounding those buildings. OSU is building a parking garage and psychiatric hospital on its campus across the street. An excerpt about future plans:


“This is Tulsa’s opportunity to grow a true university medical campus engine here,” said Judy Zarrow Kishner, president of The Anne and Henry Zarrow Foundation. “There is no question that Tulsa County needs additional mental health beds and expanded services, and the State has been committed to helping us get there over the next few years.”

Chairman of the OSU Medical Center Trust, Jay Helm, welcomed the county commissioners to the local, state and federal partnerships that have made the expansion possible.

“This will be the largest development in downtown Tulsa since the Williams Center was built more than 40 years ago,” Helm said. “This will allow the OSU Medical Center to expand and train the physicians that Tulsa County and the state of Oklahoma will need in the future.”

https://ktul.com/news/local/osu-medical-center-granted-4-million-by-tulsa-county

Why do I feel that if the same thing had been proposed in OKC there would be numerous comments here decrying the design with the setback and lack of street interaction? That certainly has and does occur with new developments in the OU Health Center area.

Meh, it's kind of an apples to oranges comparison. Tulsa's medical area doesn't seem to have the same urban type potential that OKC's does.

Meh, it's kind of an apples to oranges comparison. Tulsa's medical area doesn't seem to have the same urban type potential that OKC's does.

It’s in downtown Tulsa why wouldn’t it have the same urban potential? The state office building parking lots will be redeveloped into hospital and physician office buildings, especially the corner site at 7th & Houston

It’s in downtown Tulsa why wouldn’t it have the same urban potential? The state office building parking lots will be redeveloped into hospital and physician office buildings, especially the corner site at 7th & Houston

Here's the full site plan

^^ Looks like that is going to take up a giant sea of surface parking. Big win for downtown Tulsa.

It’s in downtown Tulsa why wouldn’t it have the same urban potential? The state office building parking lots will be redeveloped into hospital and physician office buildings, especially the corner site at 7th & Houston

NM, I was thinking of of the OSU medical building across the river.

New renderings for the OSU Medical Center complex expansion being built downtown

New rendering of the Tulsa VA Hospital at the OSU Medical Center

https://journalrecord.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2022/07/x-tulsa-va-hospital-new.jpg

It looks like they are removing the curtain walls of the old state office buildings.

New state state psychiatric hospital:

https://www.dewberry.com/images/default-source/news/new-state-psychiatric-hospital.jpg?sfvrsn=e5d19001_2

The project has grown to at least $250 million. More details here:
https://medicine.okstate.edu/va-tulsa/index.html

NM, I was thinking of of the OSU medical building across the river.

Also OSU, the new $62 million North Hall at OSU Center for Health Sciences across the river from the OSU Medical Center is now open. It includes new space for the Medical Examiner's Office for eastern Oklahoma.

https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/tulsaworld.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/3/83/3834cdba-0eb8-11ed-8f3f-c745f01ac667/62e2f8c5c680b.image.jpg

https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/education/osu-center-for-health-sciences-state-medical-examiners-office-dedicate-new-shared-facility/article_fbadfe14-0dc4-11ed-9d11-e71308fcbe48.html

I could be wrong, but I believe the VA psychiatric inpatient beds will stay in Muskogee. This appears to be a state psychiatric hospital, similar to Griffin in Norman. VA might decide to put a psych floor in the new building but hard to tell from that press release because it calls them all med\surg beds.

This is just the first in a multi-phase project to build a health complex in downtown Tulsa

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I could be wrong, but I believe the VA psychiatric inpatient beds will stay in Muskogee. This appears to be a state psychiatric hospital, similar to Griffin in Norman. VA might decide to put a psych floor in the new building but hard to tell from that press release because it calls them all med\surg beds.

The psychiatric hospital is a state hospital and not a VA facility.

Update:


Plans call for a new mental hospital to be built adjacent to the new Veterans Affairs hospital that is under construction near the Oklahoma State University Medical Center. The new VA hospital is depicted in this rendering from GH2 Architecture.

A proposed 102-bed mental hospital in downtown Tulsa moved closer to a final green light on Wednesday with a legislative panel’s approval of $38 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding for the estimated $70 million project.

The remaining costs are being covered by private donations and the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.

The Tulsa hospital, to be built adjacent to the new Veterans Affairs hospital on downtown’s west side, was one of two Department of Mental Health projects moved forward by the Joint Committee on Pandemic Relief’s Health and Human Services Workgroup during a meeting at the state Capitol.

The new hospital will replace rented space in the former Doctors Hospital, now the Tulsa Center for Behavioral Health at 2325 S. Harvard Ave., which the Department of Mental Health has occupied for 20 years.

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Construction is expected to begin next summer, and the new hospital is to open in November 2024.

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The other Department of Mental Health project involves allocating $87 million in ARPA money toward a new $137 million Griffin Memorial Hospital in Norman. The remaining cost of the project would be financed by selling department-owned land, Commissioner Carrie Slatton-Hodges told the work group.

Referring to both projects, Slatton-Hodges said, “They are so incredibly needed, because no matter how much work we do in communities, … when someone needs this level of of care, it really needs to be available.”

She said federal block grants, while “incredibly flexible,” cannot be used for inpatient facilities like the ones in Tulsa and Norman.

The work group also approved requests by the Department of Public Safety and the Oklahoma National Guard, including $11.9 million for new housing and a dining hall at Pryor’s Thunderbird Academy.

The proposals next go to the full joint committee, which is scheduled to meet next week. If approved by the full committee, the proposals will be sent to the Legislature for action in special session, possibly at the end of September.



- https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/legislative-panel-advances-arpa-funds-for-tulsa-mental-hospital/article_7ccb05b2-23c0-11ed-92ac-2fa0c3a06b3c.html