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imageSustainable Healthcare:Flad Architects Innovates to Deliver a LEED-Gold Certified Shands Cancer Hospital
Shands Cancer Hospital at the University of Florida in Gainesville has received LEED Gold certification, making it the first hospital in the state and one of a handful in the country to earn the designation. It is a remarkable achievement.

Healthcare facilities are not the easiest buildings to make “green”. Because of stringent health and building codes that address everything from air circulation to laundry processes, there are unique sustainability challenges for hospitals and related buildings.

However, enhanced environmental performance was a goal from the outset for the owner, Flad Architects, and general contractor Skanska USA. The University of Florida established a LEED-NC Silver rating as its baseline for all new facilities, so the hospital, at a very minimum, would have to strive for that. Then, while the project was still in very early stages, it became clear that the hospital could aspire to the higher Gold rating.

“We were so close. Why not try?” says Brad Pollitt, vice president of facilities for Shands HealthCare. “We already wanted an efficient building. We already wanted to do whatever we could to minimize our environmental impact. We just capitalized on our efforts.”

Of course, LEED is not in itself a definitive measure for health care facilities, and the project design team looked to incorporate other best practice standards as well (including the AIA Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities, ASHRAE HVAC Design Manual for Hospitals and Clinics, and the Green Guide for Health Care). In a number of areas the design of the Cancer Hospital exceeds LEED requirements.

“It is certainly a valuable distinction, but we didn’t need LEED to reach our sustainability goals,” says Laura Stillman, national health care group leader for Flad. “We were going to reach our goals regardless. We were already practicing sustainable design.”

Some specific sustainable features of the project include a demolition waste management process that recycled 96 percent (by weight) of an existing hotel and parking structure cleared from the site. Half of the site area was restored to native and adapted vegetation. Low VOC-emitting adhesives, sealants, paints, wood products, and carpet systems were used throughout the interior to maintain a high quality indoor air environment. Also, building orientation, solar shading, high performance glass, and energy transfer wheels, sensors, and controls were used to optimize energy performance.

Perhaps the most significant sustainability feature is the Gainesville Regional Utility’s South Energy Center, an on-site, stand-alone, 4.3-megawatt facility that will supply all of the hospital’s energy needs. Thus, power outages on the regular grid will not affect hospital operations. The South Energy Center is one of a very few combined heat and power plants located in the Southeast and capable of providing all of a hospital’s energy needs.

The new facility promises both enhanced energy efficiency and reduced emissions with a projected 46 percent savings over traditional fossil-burning generation. Key to this is capturing the turbine’s hot exhaust and using it to run the hospital’s heating and cooling systems. The projected annual savings equals the amount of energy needed to run more than 3,000 homes.

The South Energy Center is also a testament to the integrated team project delivery model. In this case the integrated team allowed for greater creativity and collaboration, which helped propel Shands into LEED gold territory.

Here, GRU owns the South Energy Center building on Shands’ property. Burns & McDonnell, an engineering, architecture, and construction firm, contracted with GRU to design and build the energy center, which had to harmonize with Flad’s design for the hospital. It was critical that the energy center design be able to accommodate future growth as Shands pursues later phases of its South Campus plan (developed by Flad). Yet there was no formal contractual agreement between Flad and Burns & McDonnell or GRU.

The integrated team structure allowed these key team members (along with multiple consultants, agencies, and subcontractors) to work across organizations to accomplish mutual and individual goals. That is, Flad team members worked directly with Burns & McDonnell and GRU team members. All viewed their separate projects as one-in-the-same: They were creating the Shands Cancer Hospital, not individual pieces of it.

In the end, GRU has a new accomplishment for its portfolio, Shands has the power it needs now and in the future (come hurricane or high water) from an energy-efficient facility with cutting-edge technology, thanks to Burns & McDonnell’s innovation. The South Energy Center design respects and complements the campus as well as the new hospital due to intense coordination with Flad. Finally, the entire project has earned a LEED Gold certification that distinguishes all of the team members.

“This brings national attention, and I think it is an extra feather in our cap,” says Pollitt. “And yet it was somewhat easy. When you set the bar high and have high expectations, then people start performing.”

Shands is the first hospital in the state and one of a handful in the country to earn LEED Gold designation. It is a remarkable achievement.Half of the site area was restored to native and adapted vegetation. The new facility promises both enhanced energy efficiency and reduced emissions with a projected 46 percent savings over traditional fossil-burning generation.Related LinksGallery Images of Shands Cancer Hospital





Shands Cancer Hospital, University of Florida, academic medical center, LEED Gold, Integrated Project Delivery