CLIENT
New York City Health+Hospitals
Corporation
PROJECT SIZE
8,000 SF
Plus work in Fifth floor MER
CONTRACT VALUE
$7,000 (Est.)
COMPLETION
2024
SERVICES
MEP/FP Design of Operating Rooms
and Infrastructure Support
ARCHITECT
Stonehill and Taylor
North Central Bronx Hospital (NCBH) is part of the NYC Health and Hospital System, the largest in the country. The Hospital, an 18-story building constructed in 1972, was unable to maintain proper temperature and humidity levels in their 4th and 7th floor operating room suites (OR’s) and were not in compliance with the latest FGI Guidelines and applicable codes. The 4th floor OR Suite consists of six operating rooms, two procedure rooms and patient, staff and clinical support spaces; the 7th floor contains the Obstetrical unit, with three Delivery rooms.
The OR’s are served by mechanical equipment located in a 5th floor mechanical equipment room (MER) which contains the air handlers, return fans, terminal units, HEPA filters and the duct distribution system.
NCBH retained Legacy Engineers to analyze and identify the deficiencies in their building systems and to establish a set of recommendations for their upgrade. Legacy performed due diligence surveys, interviewed facility personnel and worked with an air testing and balancing contractor to evaluate the current operating conditions of the air handling systems serving the OR’s.
Based on all of this information, Legacy prepared an Existing Conditions Assessment and Basis of Design Report recommending the following measures, which became the basis of the schematic design:
• Upgrade the ventilation systems serving the OR’s: The AHU serving 7th floor OR’s will be replaced with new and the entire air handling distribution system will be balanced and properly commissioned including water, steam and air balancing.
• Replace the terminal units with new.
• Remove the filters at the terminal units and provide new HEPA filters at the new laminar flow diffusers in the OR areas.
A budget cost estimate was prepared by LEGACY team’s cost estimator and submitted to the client along with the schematic documents. Presently, the NCBH is in the process of obtaining necessary funds before proceeding with the work.