Children’s Hospital of Alabama
State’s only pediatric, LEED-certifi ed hospital
gets under way
By Candy McCampbell
|
| The board of directors for the Children’s Hospital of Alabama endorsed LEED certifi cation so strongly that
one board member donated $10 million to cover added costs for sustainable building. |
Children’s Hospital of Alabama, the only pediatric hospital in the state, will be the only LEED-certified hospital in the state when its new building is completed in mid-2012.
The decision to seek certification was not difficult, says Mike McDevitt, executive vice president of the Birmingham hospital.
“We wanted, in construction and in ongoing operations, to have a minimum impact” on the environment, he says.
KLMK Group LLC of Birmingham is the project manager and architects are HKS Inc. of Dallas in partnership with Giattina Aycock Studio of Birmingham.
The hospital’s board, which had to approve the $435-million expenditure – about $285 million of that for construction – endorsed it so strongly that one board member donated $10 million to cover added costs for sustainable building.
And the board knew that operating costs would be lower thanks to the 30% gain in energy control with a new energy plant, the energy-efficient lighting, the grass-planted green roofs, indigenous and drought-tolerant exterior plantings and minimal volatile organic compounds in wall coverings and floor coverings.
As a facility that treats children, the hospital already has a low VOC mandate because one of the leading diagnoses is respiratory and pulmonary problems in its young patients, McDevitt says.
Another goal: make the facility free of latex, which can cause problems for patients.
“We are developing a platform of care for very ill patients,” McDevitt says. “The platform we are building has to be far more adaptable” to keep pace with increasing changes in technology, he adds.
Patient rooms will be about 30% larger, for both technology and comfort of parents in a child’s room.
Instead of a rectangle or series of rectangles, the building is shaped like a football and is angled on the site so the shortest sides face east and west.
There is only one square corner in the building, says John Harchelroad, senior project manager for Hoar Construction LLC of Birmingham. Hoar and BE&K of Birmingham are joint venture construction manager.
The multicurved shape is easier to build thanks to today’s technology, including global positioning systems, Harchelroad says.
The building exterior will be a combination of a unitized glass curtain-wall system, precast concrete and metal panels.
The 720,000-sq-ft, 12-story building will have 280 beds and 20 operating rooms and will have multilevel connecting bridges to the existing hospital and the University of Alabama-Birmingham Women’s and Infants Hospital. It also will be linked to a parking deck and a tunnel from the central energy plant, Harchelroad says.
The green roofs on lower levels will offer an esthetically pleasing area that does not reflect light or absorb heat. Part will be planted, part will be EPDM rubber and part will be a terrace with concrete pavers, Harchelroad says.
The new building required the demolition of three existing buildings, mostly brick and block, but landfill waste was limited, McDevitt says.
“Brick has a good market and the concrete is being pulverized for aggregate for parking,” he says. “Copper and aluminum metals went to recyclers.”
Even the landscaping was recycled, with about 75% going to church groups and the local zoo.
|
