Epic completed the construction of its massive 11,400-seat underground auditorium on time even though the project was fast-tracked.
Anticipating the need for more space for its monthly staff meetings and annual Users Group Meeting, the EHR giant set out to build the Deep Space auditorium at its Verona, Wis., campus more than a decade ago.
The construction team started by blasting 80 feet down into solid rock then assembling the entire roof structure on the ground, Epic facilities leader Jim Schumacher told founder and CEO Judy Faulkner for a March blog post.
“After it was assembled, the roof weighed more than 8 million pounds — made from steel that had been imported from Belgium to be able to support the massive load,” he said in the post. “Slowly, over the course of nine hours, the team raised the entire roof structure 55 feet into the air.”
This method reduced construction time by five months, allowing the project to be completed three years and four months after its design. Along the way, 7,500 seats were increased to 11,400, 12 escalators turned into 42, and 405,000 square feet expanded to 832,000.
“Tackling these challenges took a team of 3,500 people from more than 70 different companies coming together for a once-in-a-lifetime project,” Mr. Schumacher said in the post. “The final product is truly incredible. The auditorium has no visual obstructions, which is particularly impressive given that you could fit a football field inside of it. Between that and the 75-foot-wide LED screen, there’s not a bad seat in the house.”
Epic looks to have already outgrown that space, however, as the EHR vendor is planning to build another 750-seat underground auditorium that will connect to Deep Space.
