Regarded as the new front door of the world-renowned Mayo Clinic, the Gonda Building opened in October of 2001. Braun Intertec has been providing construction support services since the project’s inception in 1998.

Background

The 20-story Gonda Building serves as the centerpiece of recent Mayo Clinic history. Linked with the Mayo and Charlton Buildings, it forms the largest interconnected medical facility of its kind in the world.

Our services have included:

• Special inspections of reinforced concrete, masonry, structural steel and fireproofing
• Soils and concrete testing
• Ultrasonic examination of testing for full penetration welds
• Floor flatness testing
• Lightweight concrete testing
• Firestop observations
• Structural steel fabrication shop observations

Challenges

Construction of the Gonda Building shell would take place under an aggressive schedule. To help the building team meet its deadline, we provided both full-time and part-time onsite inspectors. Currently, 10 floors are in use as a medical facility. Shell space for seven additional clinical floors was built along with the initial phase, and in the future the building could be expanded to 30 stories.

Solutions

To satisfy the Mayo Clinic’s need for installation inspection, thereby reducing insurance costs significantly, Braun Intertec developed firestop inspection services. As part of this initiative, personnel received FIT firestop training for Level I and Level II certification.

Construction of the Gonda Building included the largest single concrete pour in Rochester’s construction history, and Braun Intertec is proud to have been a part of this landmark effort. The Gonda Building’s state-of-the-art design will accommodate evolving technologies and emerging biomedical discoveries for generations to come.