ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The new Critical Care Tower at UNM Hospital has been in the works for over a decade. As New Mexico’s only Level 1 trauma center, hospital officials say this project is essential to keeping up with the growing demand.

“This is the largest construction project in New Mexico history,” said Makenzie McNeill, UNMH communications manager of campus development. “I think the lobby does a really good job of showing that because this space is literally pretty big.”

The tower is nine stories tall and will soon be home to all of the UNMH adult emergency and intensive care units. The new emergency room will add more than 10,000 square feet and more patient rooms.

Upstairs they will have a new adult intensive care unit with 96 beds. That’s 24 more beds than they currently have.

“There’s going to be more natural light coming into our patient rooms because of these larger windows,” McNeill said. “Research has shown that natural light is obviously great for everybody, but in a context of a health care facility, it’s really important for our patients to have that exposure to natural light.”

The third floor will feature 18 operating rooms.

“It’s the operating room of the future and that is because all of the operating rooms are going to be floor to ceiling, as you can see, a stainless steel modular wall system,” McNeill said.

If any of the panels get damaged, the repair time will only take about an hour.

Up on the roof, they also installed a brand new helipad.

Construction is expected to take at least another year.

As construction continues on the tower, UNMH is starting to ramp up hiring. They will need to fill up to 700 new positions.