PACE Collaborative provided the Mechanical Engineering Services for the new 364,000 SF Medical Tower for Children’s Hospital of the Kings Daughters in Norfolk, VA.  The new 14 story hospital has 60 inpatient beds, outpatient services, data center, food services, indoor and outdoor recreation services, and an attached parking garage.  The new pavilion’s primary focus is to provide services for behavioral and mental health services that have seen an increase in our communities.  This support for the community is going to fill a gap that has been missing and needed for some time. 

The mechanical system is a 4-pipe system with 1100 tons of cooling and 9000 MBH of heating including N+1 redundancy.  The water-cooled chillers were built in a modular plant design off site and delivered in 3 main sections with an exterior structural skeleton above to support the cooling towers on top of the chiller plant.  The high efficiency condensing type boilers are located in the third-floor mechanical room serving hot water to the air handlers and variable air volume boxes throughout the facility. 

The air handling system consists of two sets of dual energy recovery outside air units and dual recirculation units with each set serving 7 floors and located on the 3rd floor and 14th floor respectively.  The air handlers are identical throughout the facility and provide complete redundancy to maintain operation during equipment maintenance.  The facility is designed to support inpatient services on all floors to provide the greatest flexibility for future needs and expansion of the hospital services.  The fully ducted system utilizes Variable Air Volume (VAV) terminal boxes with hot water reheat at the individual zone level for thermal occupant comfort.

The data center is fed off the chilled water system with recirculating type HVAC units that include redundant DX type condensing units if needed to separate from the house systems.  The facility also includes post event smoke evacuation systems, stairwell pressurization, Building Automation System, dedicated HVAC units for the IT closets throughout, air curtains at entrance doors, and ambulance parking with vehicle exhaust system.

Courtesy of CHKD
Courtesy of CHKD
Courtesy of CHKD