Good Sam Puyallup awarded LEED Gold
Does the Responsible Developer aspire to LEED for health care facilities?
Local Washington cities and health care providers say, Yes!
The latest addition to Puyallup’s MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital, the nine-story, $300-million Dally Tower, has received the Green Building Institute’s LEED Gold award.
The hospital tower, which doubled the space at Good Samaritan, is the state’s first hospital structure to win the Gold award for energy and resources conservation, said Tacoma’s MultiCare Health System, the hospital’s parent company.
The gold award was based on the new building’s water and energy saving features and environment-friendly construction methods. The building and parking structure replaced surface parking lots and a public street, and also replaced impervious surfaces with permeable green space. The structures added no new impacts to the stormwater system.
Other sustainable features include:
• Ecoroofs, bioswales and rain gardens that gather stormwater runoff.
• An energy-efficient building form that minimizes east-west exposure; sun shades on the windows to reduce heat gain.
• Renewable, recycled and regionally sourced materials; certified wood, low-VOC interior finishes and linoleum and rubber flooring.
• Reduction of potable water use by 20 percent compared with a normal hospital.
• HVAC system with low-velocity ducting, high-efficiency chillers and mid-building air handlers.
• Air drawn 100 percent from outside the building to help control infections, and a heat-recovery system to conserve energy.
The architect for the project was the Good Sam Design Collaborative which included Clark/Kjos Architects and GBJ Architecture. Skanska USA was the general contractor.
Another area hospital serving southeast King and northeast Pierce counties, Enumclaw’s St. Elizabeth Hospital, last summer was awarded a LEED Silver designation. St. Elizabeth is owned by Tacoma’s Franciscan Health System.
So to sum up the attributes of Green hospitals, its good for the environment, it saves energy and reduces costs, it's also gorgeous, and, it's undeniably healthy (see new USGBCCleanMed protocol).
