Commercial Architecture September 2017 - 10

FEATURE

healthy hospitals

Above. The waiting areas and public spaces at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer
Center are all defined by how they interact
with the surrounding nature. "The building
is surrounded by a series of landscapes,
including structured upper and lower gardens and a wetland meadow for viewing
and visiting. Photo: Courtesy EwingCole

Above right. The importance of indoor
air quality for human wellness was one of
the reasons WakeMed pursued LEED for
Healthcare on its North Hospital project
in Raleigh, NC. EwingCole worked with
WakeMed to select building materials,
furniture, and furnishings that met lowVOC emission standards and were free of
hazardous compounds. Photo: Brian Strickland, courtesy EwingCole

ties good candidates for green and sustainable measures is that

cooling with significant improvements to efficiency. A newly con-

healthcare buildings are often located on large campuses with inter-

structed chiller plant and expanded boiler plant bring these services

connected energy systems, Papiez observed. "Even small improve-

into a central location on campus. To further improve efficiency of

ments in efficiency of these systems can have large impacts across

operation and reduce cost, a 1-million gal., 8,000-ton-hour thermal

an entire campus, reducing environmental burden and operating

storage tank allows the cooling load to be shifted to off-peak hours.

costs. With 8% of all carbon emissions in the U.S. coming from

In total, this combination of equipment and strategies resulted in

healthcare buildings (roughly 6,000 nationwide), improvements

$2.2 million in annual utility cost savings and dramatically decreased

are critical," she said.

pollutants released into the atmosphere, resulting in improved health
outcomes for the surrounding population, Papiez said.

INFRASTRUCTURE IMPROVEMENTS

Infrastructure improvements are part of nearly every one of Ew-

to convert a 110,000-square-foot outpatient clinic in Raleigh, NC,

ingCole's healthcare projects, regardless of scale. Two have recent-

into a 61-bed, 242,000-square-foot community hospital. This

ly made major upgrades to their energy and HVAC infrastructure

WakeMed campus began development in the late 1990s with an

with affiliated, significant improvements to efficiency and cost,

outpatient healthplex and, over time, added a stand-alone emer-

Papiez related.

gency department, a medical-office building, and a parking ga-

"EwingCole has worked with Geisinger Health System since the

rage. With conversion to a full hospital, mechanical systems de-

1960s. With a deep understanding of the organization and its build-

livery was collected into one new central energy plant that houses

ing portfolio, we recently participated in the design of the integrated

the hospital's generators, chillers, and boilers in one location. The

steam, cogeneration, and chiller plants currently in operation at the

central plant was approved as part of the project to ensure more

2.2 million-square-foot campus of the Geisinger Medical Center in

efficient and comprehensive maintenance of this equipment, in

Danville, PA," she said.

contrast to the challenges of a large inventory of point-of-use

"A detailed evaluation of system options was undertaken, review-

equipment. Technologies such as geothermal, fuel cells, and pho-

ing numerous aspects of efficiency, reliability, maintenance, environ-

tovoltaics were evaluated for this project, but did not pass evalua-

mental cost, and human-health cost. A centralized strategy was se-

tion against the owner's ROI criteria. However, a central energy

lected for this large campus in which a portion of the electricity and

location and higher-efficiency equipment still contributed to an

heating/cooling come from cogeneration and a portion come from a

energy savings of nearly 25% annually," Papiez related.

more traditional combination of utility electricity with boiler generation of heat and chiller generation of cooling," she explained.

COMMERCI A L A RCHI T EC T URE

"At WakeMed North Hospital, EwingCole was commissioned

Guillot agreed that infrastructure improvements play a huge role
in the upgrading of health-campus performance. "Most of our hospi-

"Cogeneration, or combined heat and power, provides a total en-

tal building stock in this country is old, with systems and infrastruc-

ergy solution by recovering and utilizing the waste heat generated

ture to match. Significant reduction in energy use and operational

during the production of electricity to produce steam for heating and

budgets can happen when central-plant equipment can be replaced

SEPTEMBER 2017

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Commercial Architecture September 2017