It started like any other health care project. Metropolitan Hospital in Grand Rapids, Mich., was landlocked in a neighborhood and needed to expand to meet community needs. It located a 170-acre tract of land just outside the community that offered many advantages. The large acreage meant plenty of room for expansion. There was easy access to highways and the Interstate. Plus, the location would put the new hospital closer to the growing need for health care in the rural and suburban areas outside of Grand Rapids.
Then the hospital, with its parent company Metropolitan Health, took a sharp detour from the traditional route. It decided the new development should be more than a hospital. Metropolitan Health envisioned a medical village with restaurants, medical office buildings, banks, a fitness center, nationally based retailers and a major hotel. And it decided that all the buildings, including the hospital, would be certified green using the U.S Green Building Council’s LEED rating system. If all goes as planned, Metro Health Village will be the first green, LEED-certified health care campus in the nation, according to the hospital.
“We’re in the health business,” says Jeff Smitley, director of engineering and real estate for Metropolitan Health Corp. “It only makes sense that we do what we can to provide a healthy environment for patients and staff as well as the community.”
Deed Restrictions Mandate Green
To make sure the village starts and stays green, Metropolitan Health is going to draw up deed restrictions requiring LEED certification, Smitley says. Indoor environmental quality and energy consumption will be key aspects of all the village’s buildings. Metropolitan Health is working with a partner, The Grainger Group, to develop the village. Interest in building has been very high, Grainger reports.
Occupying about one-third of the space is the new hospital. The $150 million, 448,000-square-foot, 238-bed hospital, the centerpiece of this development, is expected to open in 2006. With a careful eye on the use of energy and materials for the hospital, Smitley says that his team is shooting for a LEED silver rating.
“It won’t be as difficult or expensive as it might seem,” he says. The hospital expects to pay about a 1.5 percent premium for the hospital and a 3 to 5 percent premium on the entire project. For a hospital, a silver LEED rating is tough, he says, but possible because a design team experienced in green buildings and LEED has been assembled.
The hospital will be green inside and outside the building. All patient rooms are private, with most having views of natural landscape in the village. No PVC or vinyl will be used in the constructing and equipping the hospital with the exception of PVC in the wire and cable insulation. And green materials, such as bamboo, cork, and recycled and recyclable carpet, will be used.
But energy use and production is what really sets the hospital apart. Energy is so important that 50 percent of the budget for the project is targeted for energy strategies, Smitley says.
Investing in Energy Measures
The hospital will make extensive use of daylight, high-efficiency motors and efficient lighting, including LEDs. The thermal envelope will be contain high-efficiency windows. “Because of the power plant and the energy efficiency steps we’ll be taking with the hospital, we will be able to cut the energy use at the hospital by 30 percent,” Smitley says.
But how the hospital produces energy is as important as how it uses that energy. Because the ability to easily expand the hospital is important, the design team decided to build an independent power plant, called the Advanced Energy and Sustainability Center. This free-standing building will be unusual, to say the least. By incorporating sophisticated green design strategies, Smitley says he expects the plant to get a platinum LEED rating, the highest the council awards.
Phase one of this two-story, 45,000-square-foot facility will feature a combined heat and natural power system that will provide baseload power, as well as steam, high-temperature water and chilled water. It will also include an induction-coupled rotary flywheel for uninterruptible power. Phase two will include electrolysis-generated hydrogen for use in generators. The electrolysis breaks down water into hydrogen and oxygen, which will be captured and used by the hospital. The water will come from a 20-acre pond that will collect runoff from the village. Smitley expects to produce the power for the electrolysis using renewable energy.
The plant will also produce methane by composting waste materials from the hospital and the village.The power plant will provide about 30 percent of the power for the hospital from on site sources. The remaining 70 percent is going to come from the utility’s green power program.
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FROM the Green Building Report, produced quarterly by the U.S. Green Building Council in
Building Operating Management, a Sustainable Business.com Content Partner.
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