Chicago’s Lurie Children’s Hospital blends innovative patient care and green technology.
Children’s Memorial Hospital of Chicago is one of the premier pediatric medical facilities in the country. On June 9, the hospital’s main facility moved downtown from the city’s north side and became the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.
The move was made to the $1 billion, 23-story building to help the hospital further its mission to provide superior care to the region’s critically ill and injured children. The building design is of vital importance in helping the hospital fulfill its mission. Lurie Children’s Hospital incorporates not only green building design principles but also hospital design principles that increase patient safety, speed healing and make care more efficient.
It should come as no surprise then that only environmentally aware partners were invited to design and build the hospital’s new facility. Located on Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine campus, Lurie Children’s Hospital broke ground in April 2008. Consulting engineer Affiliated Engineers Inc. in Madison, Wis., and mechanical contractor F.E. Moran in Northbrook, Ill., selected pump manufacturer Xylem Inc. and manufacturers representative Bornquist Inc. in Chicago to assist them in developing the hospital’s HVACR systems.
“Hospitals are some of the most complex structures to design and build,” says Dave Everhart, sales manager at Bornquist. “Steam and water systems, disinfecting, HVAC systems, lighting, all must run 24/7, no matter what. Anything we can do to lower the hospital’s carbon footprint is always incorporated in our plans.”