WWaltham, MA – This year’s MHA Healthcare Construction Conference included a case study entitled “Partners HealthCare/Spaulding Project: Designing with LEED & Regenerative Architecture to Promote Healing & Well-Being for Patients.”
It was presented by David Burson, AIA, NCARB, senior project manager of Partners HealthCare, and Deborah Rivers, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, senior associate at Perkins + Will, and Mark Junghans , P.I. Principal at VHB / Vanasse Hangen Brustlin.
The new Rehabilitation Hospital on a former Brownfield site will feature an eight story building; 261,300sf. above ground, 117,000sf underground; five inpatient floors; a three-floor base of outpatient, support services, and public spaces; 132 private inpatient beds; 120 adult beds and 12 pediatric beds. Seventy-six percent of the ground floor is dedicated to program space that will be shared with the public – a café, conference rooms, gift shop, chapel and pool.
Designed as a model hospital for accessibility and barrier free design both inside and out, the latest sustainable and energy efficient technologies are incorporated, and LEED Silver certification level is currently being tracked.
Among the topics discussed were some of the major studies conducted and conclusions reached to green the facility including:
Regenerative Design: Studies to facilitate decision making include: solar shading, thermal envelope performance; insulation; percentage glazing; daylighting; natural ventilation; displacement ventilation and geo-exchange.
They discussed ways of going green in their choice and handling of building materials: material life cycle and material health to use durable materials, divert 75% of construction waste from landfills, maximize use of regional materials and materials with recycled content and use materials that reduce harm to people and the environment.
Design considerations of Architect Perkins + Will included enhanced interior environment: daylighting with sensors and controls, extensive use of interior glass in administrative and clinical areas as appropriate, open office planning to optimize daylight and views and natural ventilation in outpatient gym, daylighting in the therapy gym through extensive windows and skylights, views to the harbor from the therapy gym, natural ventilation in therapy gym, therapy garden adjacent to therapy gym that allows direct patient access to the outside.
Partners HealthCare, Perkins + Will, and construction manager Walsh Brothers, Inc. along with subcontractors and Spaulding Rehab Hospital staff members recently celebrated the topping out of the project in Charlestown.
The Hospital is pursuing a LEED silver level certification in accordance with USGBC guidelines. If successful, this will be the first newly constructed hospital in New England to achieve silver level LEED.
Ranked fourth among rehabilitation hospitals by U.S. News and World Report, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital has steadily built a reputation as a premier facility for rehabilitative patient care and related research.
