Construction on the hospital began in August 2017 and the building was opened for patient care in late October 2019. Since its opening, the building has been analyzed, determining that its sustainable features functioned as anticipated to meet the thresholds required to earn Gold certification.
HCA had challenged the project design team to incorporate an integrated project delivery model in order to satisfy three major goals for the project:
- reduce the overall budget and time of construction by 10 percent,
- use pre-fabrication elements as much as possible, and
- complete the commissioning of all new systems and spaces in the building before opening the hospital.
The resulting building met those expectations. “It is designed to save 678,000 gallons of water per year above standard water use for a facility of similar size, through efficient landscaping/irrigation and plumbing systems,” said Ryan Collins, plumbing engineer for WSP.
During construction, more than 95 percent of construction waste was recycled or reused and thereby diverted from landfill disposal.
“This means that 880,000 pounds of potential construction waste was kept out of the landfill,” said Amit Bhansali, lead mechanical engineer for WSP. “Prefabrication was a contributing factor that resulted in less on-site waste.”
By incorporating early design involvement with all sub-contractors, the MEP design team was able to collaborate in the pre-manufacture of MEP racks. Most MEP elements were manufactured offsite in a controlled environment and transported to the building for installation.
“Electrical conduits for distribution were constructed offsite that were to go underground and brought to the site and lowered to the location where the electrical equipment was to sit,” said Brandon Macha, electrical engineer for WSP. “The process that traditionally would have taken a few days to complete if assembled at site took less than two hours.
“This avoided the risk associated with weather events, of which there were many,” Bhansali said. “As a result, the project remained on schedule and overall labor cost was reduced.”
Additional materials and finishes throughout the project were selected for sustainability, including responsible sourcing of raw materials, life-cycle effectiveness, and use of healthier, low-emitting content that promotes improved indoor air quality.