"They're popping up everywhere," Jack Atkins, director of the healthcare studio for Dallas-based Azimuth Architecture Inc. And, he says, all of the projects are "coming out of the ground at the same time." Some projects are resulting in partial takeovers of established office structures in suburban markets, he told GlobeSt.com.

"There's a lot of people planning," Atkins says of the North Texas trend to deliver medical facilities to outlying areas so residents don't have to battle traffic and in some cases drive 50-plus miles to high-profile health-care providers in the heart of Dallas. He speculates that there is close to several hundred thousand sf of projects in the works right now and more are sure to follow.

Frisco, north of Dallas, is close to seeing the delivery of an ambulatory center and medical office building while site planning is being discussed for a short-stay hospital. Under construction is a $4.2-million, 66,000-sf medical office building at the intersection of Legacy and Stonebriar by owner Land Plan Development Corp., says Atkins. It's situated just across the street from 2500 Legacy, an office structure that now primarily houses physicians.

In Plano, general contractor The Carin Co. and L.A. Fuess Partners Engineers are wrapping up work on an Azimuth-designed complex that's a makeover of three small buildings near the community's primary hospital, Plano Medical Center. The complex, located at Coit Rd. and 15th St., is owned by Cambridge Holdings Co. The conversion, costing upward of $2.6 million, opens doors for a Women's Diagnostic Center and the Raphael Institute for Plastic Surgery.

Then there had been the two-story addition to Plano Medical Center for Nashville, TN-based HCA Healthcare that had been designed by Dallas' Collin Reisenbichler, using L.A. Fuess as the structural engineer.

In Lewisville, HCA has been gathered round the table as it tries to figure out how much of an expansion is needed for its medical center. "They're still trying to anticipate future needs," Mark Peterman, L.A. Fuess principal, told GlobeSt.com. He and Atkins say the building trend is concentrating to the north and east of Dallas.

Farther north, Denton Regional Hospital is waiting for finish out of an expansion that is linked to its closure of the community's Flow Rehabilitation Center. The hospital, located off Interstate 35, is bringing part of the rehab center's programs into the primary facility, says Atkins. Everything from a full-floor conversion to a nuclear medicine suite has been undertaken.

"This year promises to be quite a bit busier than the last two years," says Peterman, who also has projects working in Clear Lake on the outskirts of Houston and Conroe, TX.

The health-care genesis is such that is doesn't always follow the nation's economy, explains Atkins, whose team of late has been overseeing anywhere from three to six projects simultaneously for the region.