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THE PROBLEM
How do you design a brownfield, full-service medical center in a fully developed urban area to meet aggressive sustainability goals, including achieving LEED Gold certification?
OUR PROCESS
The steady growth of Portland’s Westside suburbs presented a perfect opportunity for Kaiser Permanente to better serve its current and future members by building not only the area’s first new medical center in nearly 40 years, but also one of a small number of LEED Gold-certified medical centers in the world. In 2005, Kaiser Permanente announced plans to construct a new 138-bed general medical and surgical hospital on the west side of Portland in Hillsboro. Kaiser Permanente selected AECOM and PKA to plan and design this new facility. All Kaiser Permanente projects are built from an existing template developed by Kaiser Permanente. In the case of the Westside Medical Center, we had a chance to help develop the next generation of the template as well as customize the template for the Pacific Northwest region. For instance, at Westside the office space was significantly reduced when compared to earlier KP hospital templates. One of the challenges of this project was the development of the site. The 15-acre site is a long, narrow strip with an existing clinic, sandwiched between a major street (NW Stucki Ave.) to the south and a residential area to the north. The city required pedestrian access through the center of the site to allow access to NW Stucki Ave., but was limited by the need to allow vehicular traffic through to the parking structure situated in the northeast corner of the site. The solution to this design challenge was to provide underground access to the parking structure for vehicular traffic coming in from NW Stucki Ave., allowing for extensive pedestrian walking trails radiating throughout the site and culminating in a plaza at the main entrance of the medical office building. In this way, Kaiser Permanente members visiting the campus either by cars or on foot will have quick and convenient access to high-quality, affordable care at the new Kaiser Permanente Westside Medical Center.
“Medical Design is not just what we do, it’s what we do best!”
– Steve Kolberg
THE SOLUTION
Hospitals are their own breed of sustainable building. Rather than concentrate on adaptive reuse possibilities for the facilities, the design team focused on investing in extending the long-term life cycle cost of the buildings and providing opportunities for future expansion on the campus. Fewer than 50 hospitals in the world have achieved LEED Gold certification, which is understandable given that hospitals are open around the clock and consume large amounts of energy. For Kaiser Permanente Westside Medical Center to join this small and prestigious group, the project team knew they had to earn LEED points for the design, including for energy savings. Just as important to the Kaiser Permanente leadership team, the medical center had to be able to sustain those energy savings for years to come. The team rigorously analyzed every energy system to ensure favorable return on investment, sound lifecycle costs and significant energy savings year after year. From sophisticated to simple, Kaiser Permanente invested in numerous solutions for each facility The Kaiser Westside Medical Center (KWMC) focused heavily on reducing energy usage through a host of design strategies in order to meet Kaiser Permanente’s aggressive goal to reduce its overall greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2020 compared to its 2008 levels. In targeting energy reduction goals the project team employed practical design strategies to increase the efficiency of campus buildings. The design team carefully analyzed and prioritized passive strategies first – looking at building orientation and massing to reduce heating and cooling needs. Next the project team turned to efficiency measures such as the zoned heating and cooling systems with heat recovery chillers and high-efficiency motors in the hospital, central utility plant and office building. Lastly the project team looked to onsite renewable energy systems to cover some of the center’s energy needs without producing carbon emissions. The roof of the parking garage features a 100-kilowatt, kW, solar electric array, which is estimated to produce 87,782 annual kWh of electricity.
THE RESULT
Opened in August 2013, the Westside Medical Center’s 126-bed hospital, medical offices, central utility plant and eight-story parking garage showcase efficient and sustainable design reflective of its place and the community it serves. Sited on a tight 15-acre site within a vibrant mixed-use neighborhood, the Westside Medical Center offers integrated and convenient community care. The 289,000 square foot hospital used Kaiser Permanente’s research-based, second generation template hospital design with adaptations to fit the site. To provide the best experience for patients and families, the design solution implemented Kaiser Permanente’s “Total Health Environment” program, which supports patients’ minds, bodies, and spirits. Throughout the campus, the 975-piece art collection showcases local artists. Each piece was hand-selected or commissioned to enhance health and wellness. To further connect with and promote health in the community, the site has space to host a farmer’s market to bring fresh foods to the neighborhood. The new Kaiser Permanente Westside Medical Center offers members access to high quality, affordable health care, as well as a new gathering place for the surrounding community. Thanks to energy-saving and generating strategies, the medical center campus expects the buildings collectively to save 27 percent more energy than required by Oregon energy code. As a result, the Kaiser Permanente anticipates saving $232,000 in energy costs each year. It’s estimated that the campus will avoid releasing more than 2,200 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions into the air every year—that’s the equivalent of taking 431 cars off the road.
