St. John Medical Center

Addition to existing building; St. John Medical Center; Thorson Baker and Associates Inc.

By Thorson Baker & Associates Inc. August 15, 2013

Engineering firm: Thorson Baker & Associates Inc.
2013 MEP Giants rank:
90
Project:
St. John Medical Center
Address:
Cleveland, Ohio, United States
Building type:
Hospital
Project type:
Addition to existing building
Engineering services:
Automation & Controls, Code Compliance, Electrical/Power, Fire & Life Safety, HVAC, Lighting
Project timeline:
April 2011 to July 2014
Engineering services budget:
$8.38 million
MEP budget:
$11.38 million

Challenges

Thorson Baker & Associates (TBA) is excited to be a part of completing the goals of St. John Medical Center, located in Westlake, Ohio. This project will enable the hospital to further its faith-based mission in Catholic health care while promoting its relationship with the 50/50 partnership between the Sister of Charity Health System and University Hospitals (UH), as well as strengthening its position as an educational hospital for the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine.

The $50,000,000 project includes interior remodeling and two additions. The additions, which consist of approximately 36,000 sq ft, include a new outpatient entrance and lobby, biometrics area, PEDS, ENDO, same-day surgery, operating rooms, and pre-/post-op. The renovations incorporate approximately 76,000 sq ft and include an emergency observation unit, imaging, laboratory, operating rooms, progressive care unit, biometrics, central sterile rooms, and operating staff lockers and lounge.

The 146,000-sq-ft renovation of the site area includes the relocation of oxygen lines, main cold water lines, chilled water lines, and main electrical duct banks. The challenges of this project were to complete the design and construction affecting the entire complex while keeping the hospital in operation in a clean and healthy environment to provide at a minimum of LEED Silver Certification as specified by U.S. Green Building Council. Twenty additional TBA projects have received LEED Certification and 41 projects are registered and on track to receive certification. Continual challenges were to keep the project or budget and on schedule.

Solutions

To obtain the hospital’s goals, the team selected the Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) method approach to have a three-party agreement between the architect, the CM, and the owner. This method promotes the design team working together from the project’s inception through its completion, in order to keep the project on schedule and within budget. TBA collaborates with the architect’s team for the design using BIM (Revit) to model the additions and renovations, which helped the CM team to understand installation challenges before demolition started.