Hartford, CT – S/L/A/M Construction Services (SLAM CS) was recently honored with a first-place Excellence in Construction award in the renovation category, from the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) of Connecticut, for its work on the Saint Francis Hospital & Medical Center renovation project in Hartford.
Funding requirements and an immediate need to occupy the building greatly influenced the approach and phasing for this complex project. From day one through construction completion, the second floor remained fully occupied by Saint Francis, which required a plan to manage the extensive demolition and reconstruction of the floors above and below the space. The team also had to develop a process to decommission the existing building’s mechanical/electrical/plumbing (MEP) systems while maintaining the building operations of the occupied spaces.
Phase 1 began in December 2012 with the systematic gut and renovation of the entire MEP infrastructure, bathroom cores, elevator, roofing, and interior spaces of the building. This also included the installation of temporary utilities, MEP systems, and sewer ejector pumps with temporary plumbing to maintain operations of a bathroom core. Saint Francis occupied each floor as it was completed, which required a temporary certificate of occupancy per floor. In preparation for the eventual inclusion of the data center on the first floor, the team included upgrades to the infrastructure and MEP systems needed to support the future data center load, a key planning strategy to avoid any reconstruction and building disruptions needed to construct the future data center.
Phase 2 began in November 2015, after 10 months of planning and design of the data center spaces. The tier 3 requirements included multiple redundant utility feeds, communications, cooling systems, and standby power. Continuous power was provided by dual uninterruptible power systems (UPS) feeding the data center load until the three 750 kw generators were online.
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“Our new tier III data center will provide the hospital with the latest technology, capacity and redundancy needed to collect, protect and store critical data needed to run our operations. This will help us better manage the security of our clinical systems and health records,” says Robert Falaguerra, vice president of facilities, support services and construction at Saint Francis.” SLAM’s design-build team was able to provide a thoughtfully executed solution to a very complex and critical project for the hospital.”
The annual Connecticut ABC awards event honors construction companies and subcontractors who performed work on outstanding construction projects. The Excellence in Construction winners are projects submitted to this annual competition and judged by an independent panel of judges, which include owners, architects, engineers and other industry leaders. Project submittals must adhere to rigorous application requirements for consideration of the year’s top honors. Contractors must demonstrate outstanding quality in construction and references from the project owner, and rigorous safety performance.
