Healthcare Design - December 2013 - 24

HCDmagazine.com 12.13

cies to help prevent the building from overheating and
provide fresh air.
"The prime directive of a hospital in an extreme
weather event is to safely shelter in place," Guenther
says. "You need to maintain habitable conditions in
the building so that the occupants can shelter in place
until everything is back and running."
Additional windows in the gymnasium and public
spaces are tied to the HVAC controls and bring natural ventilation inside when weather permits. Lounges
on the patient floors also have operable windows for
general use.
Taking advantage of the natural site grading,
which slopes up about 30 inches from the waterfront
pier bulkhead to the sidewalk, a two-level parking
structure was built below ground. Then all of the
critical patient functions and infrastructure services
were placed above the ground floor, to ensure that all
the programs that would be needed for occupants to
shelter in place wouldn't be flooded.
Building solutions
Another goal for the waterfront location was to design
a building that would become part of the urban fabric.
"It's always important to relate buildings to their
surroundings," says Ralph Johnson, lead designer,
Perkins+Will.
The BRA regulates that buildings be sited away
from the water's edge to protect the open views.
Based upon these guidelines, Johnson says the

Above: Terraces stacked at
the ends of the patient tower
feature operable windows and
serve as sun rooms, allowing
patients and families to get
some fresh air without leaving
the floor.

©ANTON GRASSL/ESTO

from 2005 to 2006, during the time when Hurricane
Katrina hit the southeast United States in August
2005. Ownership quickly recognized the potential for
similar disasters on its waterfront location and used
lessons from the event to identify a series of overall
resiliency measures. (The project was put on hold
during the recession and restarted in 2009.)
For example, the first-floor level was set 42 inches
above the 100-year flood plain and 30 inches above
the 500-year mark to factor in sea level rise projections. In addition, the landscape incorporates a 3-foot
berm around the perimeter to act as a protective reef.
Next, the entire critical mechanical and electrical infrastructure for the inpatient clinical areas was
moved to the roof. The hospital also chose a gasfired cogeneration unit for thermal energy and power,
along with an emergency generator to serve as a
back-up if the cogeneration unit fails. "It's inherently
more resilient to have your own on-site power generation," says Robin Guenther, principal, Perkins+Will
(New York). "It's the power grid that's proven to be
more disruptive than natural gas service in urban
areas in extreme weather."
It's also an energy-efficient power source for the
LEED Gold-certified building, which uses the waste
heat from power generation for heating loads, including hot water preheating.
A third resiliency feature is the incorporation of
operable windows in the patient rooms, where staff
can use a key to open the windows during emergen-

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Healthcare Design - December 2013

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