Hurricane damage created by the storms which battered Florida and other states over the past several years has demonstrated the vulnerability of our essential services buildings. It is imperative that medical facilities/hospitals remain in operation during a significant weather event and especially that critical time after a storm when the injured and infirmed need care and refuge.
We can plan and design hardened facilities for now and into the future with storm security a primary structural design consideration (such is the case with the recently completed Homestead Hospital). However, the majority of our essential service buildings are existing structures designed under previous codes, and are therefore vulnerable to damage from future storms. A strategy must be developed for hardening existing buildings to withstand the impact of a storm equal to those new buildings designed.
Memorial Regional Hospital is going thru such a transformation today. While remaining in operation, the hospital is being “encapsulated” with a new structurally hardened, skin to provide protection through a Category 4 hurricane. The core component of the system is EIFs by “STO” which is structurally reinforced with three layers of mesh; two layers of STO armor matt xx 20 oz and a layer of 4.5 or mesh below the finish coat. In addition, new hurricane impact windows and curtain wall systems are being installed by Harmon Glass outside of the existing windows.
Logistically, a project such as this is difficult to execute. High hospital occupancy rates mandated that patient rooms could not be removed from operation during construction. A phased window replacement would have taken years to execute if only two or three rooms could be removed from patient care operation at a given time. By encapsulating the existing windows and with 100% of construction occurring from the exterior, the construction project around the 690 bed hospital facility will be completed in less than one year. In the future, when renovation or remodeling projects are executed within the hospital, the old windows can be removed and a shadow box created in each room.
The STO EIFS system has been around for years but it is the reinforced mesh design that is unique to this project. Laboratory testing of the system has demonstrated positive and negative pressure capacity of 218 lb/sf. In fact, the pressure test stopped at this point because the “test equipment could not provide higher loads.” Impact tests were just as impressive since the high density foam has an impact absorption quality before a missile ever hits the substrate. The EIF system easily achieved a missile level E (velocity of 80 feet/second).
At Memorial Regional Hospital, bi-weekly project management meetings have helped coordinate the construction and logistics of the complicated project. With several hundred workers on the site at peak construction periods, workers park off site and are shuttled to the hospital so that the visitor parking garage will not be overrun with construction workers. In addition, food service facilities have been created for the workers on the roof of the hospital so that no construction personnel go into the hospital and cafeteria and negatively impact patients, families, or staff.
In addition to the strengthening of the facility, recladding Memorial Regional Hospital represented the opportunity to upgrade and modernize the appearance of the hospital. Curb appeal, signage, logo colors were all incorporated into the façade project design and has had a dramatic impact on the aesthetic of the hospital which generates good will in the community, positive image to the hospital, and positive feeling from hospital employees. Everyone takes pride in improved hospital facilities.
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