Vanderbilt’s skyline will soon welcome another new addition.

The Tennessee Health Services and Development Agency Board approved a Certificate of Need for Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s request to build a third tower onto VUH. The 12 story facility will include 12-14 new operating suits along with approximately 135 new patient beds. The facility is set for construction atop the newly-rebuilt emergency department. That project, completed in April, 2005, reconfigured VUMC’s emergency services and was built as the platform for a future third tower.

The addition will be completed in phases, the first of which include the building’s outer shell and a number of new beds and is set for a completion date in 2009 according to The Tennessean. Renovations of existing space along with a build-out of the new structure are set for completion in 2012.

The 11-story structure will include eight patient floors and two mechanical floors along with the existing emergency department ground floor. The total cost of the project is estimated at $234.4 million. By comparison, the newly completed renovation of Buttrick Hall (which expanded the structure from 38,000 to 90,000 square feet) cost an estimated $22 million, or about one-tenth of the projected cost for the third tower.

A master plan established for the Medical Center in 2005 calls for the eventual “squaring off” of the two existing towers and the planned third tower to form “single rectangular structure,” according to The Reporter. Another part of the VUMC master plan, the removal of Medical Center South to make way for the new South Garage, is currently under way.

Eventual changes include the removal of Oxford House, the addition of new parking, and the creation of a new main entrance from 21st Avenue.