Following a ceremony on Friday, an upper beam was installed to commemorate the construction of the University of Missouri’s new Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopment.
Thompson Center staff, representatives from MU and MU Health Care, Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., community members and more left their signatures on the beam before it was hoisted to the roof of the new facility at South Providence Medical Park on Veterans United Drive.
The first footings were poured in March, said Whiting-Tuner’s Ben Howard, and with the topping out ceremony, much of the necessary infrastructure, such as gas, power, water, sewer and much of the steel work, is complete as crews continue work on the new facility.
“To date, we have worked 26,063 hours without a safety incident. We have completed 33 separate foundation and shaft construction operations. … We have installed 7,000 linear feet of underground utilities, so about 1.4 miles. I think the coolest thing here is that we have 1,200 beams, 109 columns and about 421 tons of steel on site. That’s just the structural steel,” Howard said.
When completed, the facility will be 5,600 square meters in size. By Friday, workers had completed about half of the laying of the floors.
Connie Brooks, executive director of the Thompson Center, praised Whiting-Turner and all the work that goes into a facility like this, including partners within MU and MU Health Care, as well as those at South Providence Medical Park.
“It’s been amazing to see the progress,” she said, adding that she shares construction progress with Thompson Center staff on a weekly basis. “It’s been fun to get the responses from Thompson Center team members who can’t wait to move into this new building.”
Because the Thompson Center serves people with autism and other neurological disorders, many of the youngsters are fascinated by construction, Brooks said. One young boy can name any construction vehicle by make and model right off the bat, she said.
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“Our occasion today almost made me think about how much the Whiting-Turner team and the Thompson Center team have in common,” Brooks said. “We both have our favorite tools. … We both think about safety. We both wear uniforms. We also both get dirty, if you count spit, snot and sometimes urine and vomit. Both of our teams are prepared for possibilities and what can happen when we work together.”
“We both build. We build spaces, relationships and trust.”
The Thompson Center will provide a comfortable environment and a place where every word counts for the families it serves, she added.
Charles Dunlap covers local politics, community stories and other general issues for the Tribune. Reach him at [email protected] or @CD_CDT on X, formerly Twitter. Subscribe to support important local journalism.
