At $754 million the new C.S. Mott Children's Hospital and Von Voigtlander Women's Hospital building is the most expensive project in University of Michigan history and one of the costliest in the state.

But the pediatric care journey at U-M has been a long one. The pediatrics division has grown from humble beginnings as a small ward for sick children inside a wooden building in 1903 to the one of the largest children's care facilities in the nation with the Dec. 4 opening of a brand-new, state-of-the-art 1.1 million-square-foot facility.

This timeline illustrates that journey:

1903: U-M opens a 75-bed children's ward, called the Palmer Ward, on Catherine Street. The facility was one of the first facilities in the nation dedicated to pediatric care.

1905: A pediatrics division is launched. Also, the first pediatrics care course is taught at U-M's medical school.

1950: U-M opens its Women's Hospital as a center dedicated to the care of pregnant women. With 28 rooms and 32 maternity beds, the hospital's birth center was one of the nation's first facility to offer single-room maternity care.

1965: U-M receives a $6.5 million donation from philanthropist Charles Stewart Mott to build its first children’s hospital.

1969: The C.S. Mott Children's Hospital opens. The 200-bed hospital served 3,500 children that first year.

Late 1980s: U-M reconfigures and expands Mott. Open wards are retrofitted into rooms.

1990: The Maternal Child Health Center opens, expanding U-M’s children’s and women’s services, specifically the Birth Center and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

May 2004: U-M announces plans to build facility that will house both the Mott and Women's hospitals.

April 2005: U-M officials ask the Board of Regents to approve a new C.S. Mott Children's Hospital and Von Voigtlander Hospital building. The projected cost is $498 million. The project is approved unanimously by the eight regents. Not calculating inflation, the project has the largest price tag in university history. Also, U-M receives a $25 million donation toward the hospital from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.

Feb. 2006: The Board of Regents approve the hospital's schematic design. They also approve a 5 percent increase in the projected cost of the project. At $523 million, the project exceeds half a billion dollars.

Summer 2006: The Michigan Department of Community Health reviewed the project and issued a certificate-of-need, giving U-M the go-ahead to begin construction.

Oct. 2006: New Mott building groundbreaking ceremony takes place.

Dec. 2006: Construction on the new hospital building begins.

Oct. 2008: U-M Board of Regents approve $231 million addition, increasing the total cost to $751 and delaying the opening date to fall 2012. Even with inflation considered, the project becomes the most costly in university history and one of the most expensive construction endeavors in Michigan history.

June 2009: Construction worker killed when materials fall on him.

May 2010: The university announces that construction will be finished faster than anticipated and moves the opening date to November 2011.

June 2011: Doug Strong, the chief executive officer of U-M Hospitals and Health Centers, tells the Board of Regents that start up cost for the new facility will reach approximately $70 million during its first year of operation.

July 2011: U-M officials announces they are hiring 500 new workers to staff the new facility.

Oct. 18, 2011: U-M pushes opening date back three weeks, from Nov. 13 to Dec. 4.

Nov. 6, 2011: A public open house for the new facility will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Dec. 4, 2011: Hospital is expected to open, with 200 to 250 patients being transitioned to the new building during a 12-hour period.