Do you think your architect and contractor could design
and construct a 12-story, 280,000 square foot Ambulatory Surgery Center with 12
ORs in less than 18 months?
What if your site already had foundation and setback approvals in place for office/hotel
use and any changes would require you to resubmit for planning approvals? What
if it was located in a major metropolitan area? What if you had an estimated
$12.6 million in tax incentives based on achieving substantial completion in 18
months?
Our team did. And
here is how we did it.
Montefiore Medical Center is a premier academic health
system and the University Hospital for Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Combining nationally-recognized clinical excellence with a population health
perspective that focuses on the health needs of communities, Montefiore
delivers coordinated, compassionate, science-driven care where, when and how
patients need it most.
Montefiore’s regional delivery system consists of six
hospitals and an extended care facility with a total of 2,059 beds, a School of
Nursing, and state-of-the-art primary and specialty care provided through a
network of more than 150 locations across, including the largest school health
program in the nation and a home health program.
With the three-fold goal of improving the patient
experience, meeting increased demand for outpatient ambulatory care services
and improving efficiency, Montefiore recognized the need for a new
state-of-the-art ambulatory care center, a hospital without beds.
In addition, Montefiore wanted to take advantage of the
Industrial and Commercial Abatement Program, or ICAP, a program available
through the NYC Department of Finance. Approximately $12.6 million in lease
savings was available. The caveat: substantial completion of the building
had to take place by December 2013.
Looking for available parcels, they identified a property
adjacent to an existing Montefiore facility that had already received zoning
approvals – a plus regarding the schedule, as securing zoning approvals in NYC
can often be a long and arduous process. However, the zoning approval had
been for a hotel that featured significant setbacks and floor plate size
restrictions. In order to proceed without obtaining a variance, which
would result in significant cost and schedule impacts, the footprint and
setbacks could not be altered.
Montefiore selected Array Architects as planners,
designers and to act as Montefiore’s liaison with Simone Development, the owner
of the building. Since the core and shell was originally designed as a
Class “A” office building with a hotel on the upper floors and had received
approvals, any major changes to the foundation plan would jeopardize the
December 2013 substantial completion date.
After a thorough investigation to incorporate Article 28
requirements set by the New York State Department of Health, Array developed a
floor plan around existing columns and core locations (set by piles) to meet
the project schedule and budget targets.
Taking BIM to the Next
Level
Specializing exclusively in health care design, Array was
one of the first firms in New York City to adopt REVIT as a design platform and
recognize the benefits of implementing Building Information Modeling
(BIM) on projects. To meet the aggressive schedule, Array recognized that
the entire design team: architect, MEP engineers, general contractor
and trade contractors – needed to work from a single BIM model and collaborate
extensively.
Located in the Bronx, the project was a non-union
job. While BIM has been used by design and engineering firms for
approximately three years, construction firms and trade contractors have not
embraced the technology as rapidly, especially non-union firms. Recognizing the
need to bring the trade contractors up the BIM learning curve in order to meet
the schedule, the General Contractor, MCG, hired Liberty Mechanical Contractors,
LLC in a dual role as the plumbing trade contractor and as the project-wide BIM
coordinator.
Up until this project, Liberty had not worked exclusively
with BIM, but recognized that this was an opportunity to learn the “ins and
outs” from Array. Liberty dedicated a BIM manager exclusively to the Montefiore
project. To educate all the subcontractors, Array and Liberty conducted weekly
coordination meetings in a “War Room” located at Liberty’s offices.
With the lead BIM coordinators from each trade present, Array
and Liberty led discussions to develop a BIM Execution Plan that clearly
identified specific milestones and each trade’s contribution to the design and
construction of the project. This streamlined the process and contributed to
significant time savings. Utilizing a project website to facilitate
communication, Array and Liberty made the BIM Model “live” and available to the
entire team. This allowed revisions to be seen in real time significantly
reducing change orders. Similarly, with their “marching orders,” each trade was
able to contribute to the BIM Model in real time as well.
Making the BIM Model ‘Team
Friendly’
Array had been working with the developer, Simone
Development, and Montefiore for six months developing test fits for the
building, taking into consideration the existing foundations and piles. As a
result, there was a robust BIM model of the core and shell, MEP and structural infrastructure and foundations available which
Array turned over to Liberty. Liberty took the MEP model, and through a program
called Navisworks, began to translate the MEP drawings directly into
fabrication lengths, again saving significant time and effort in engineering
coordination.
With 12 state-of-the-art operating suites, this was a
very complex building from an MEP perspective. Floor plate size limitations,
due to pre-approved set back and height requirements, necessitated a very unusual
stacking solution. ORs and support spaces had to be located on separate floors:
ORs, patient prep and recovery on the 3rd and 4thfloors, staff lockers and
support on the 4th floor and central sterile on the 5th floor all
connected by dedicated elevators and stair.
With fabrication of piping and ductwork being done
offsite to expedite turn-around time, it was critical that the model and
drawing show clash detection and clearances for all access panels accurately in
these areas. There was no time to re-fabricate or have change orders in the
field.
Liberty developed a unique tool in the BIM model called
an Access Circle that mapped Reach Distances – i.e. the area that could be
easily reached by maintenance personnel through the access panel once the building
was completed. Identifying Reach Distances was critical to the success of the
stacked program.
The Access Circle supported clash detection by ensuring
that any object, MEP, structural, ceiling, etc. could not cross the Access
Circle sphere. It allowed the design and construction team to visualize the
Reach Distance from all access panels to shut off valves and gauges. In
addition to facilitating the construction process, this model will be turned
over to Montefiore’s facility management team and will be an invaluable
resource for maintaining the building.
The Model that ‘Ruled the World’
With the model so integral to the design, off-site
fabrication and construction of the project, it was imperative that the
building reflect the BIM model exactly. When changes were made in the
field, the BIM model had to be updated as well. To give you an idea of the
level of detail included in the BIM model, all copper piping one inch or larger
was modeled, as were all medical gases, every valve and shut off switch.
This also expedited other field trades such as electrical
subcontractors. Because the BIM model so accurately reflected the actual
construction, snapshots of different columns could be extracted from the BIM
model, measuring distances between all columns, allowing accurate offside
fabrication. This reduced the need for field sketches of transitions and saved
significant time.
The BIM model was developed to support actual
construction sequencing. For example, some floors had piping completed before
ductwork, while other floors had ductwork completed first. All materials were
color coded on the BIM model, and then delivered to the site with color coding
to facilitate installation.
The BIM Model “ruled the world.” For example, if an issue
arose with an item during construction, the BIM model was checked and it was
quickly apparent that the item was not installed following the pre-determined
location identified in the BIM model. The BIM model didn’t change, but rather
the field location of the item was changed.
Collaboration Is Key
Collaboration among team members was critical to the
success of this 280,000 SF “hospital without beds.” Team members met in the War
Room on a weekly basis. Shop drawings were reviewed by the group on screen
based on the BIM model allowing the coordination drawings to be approved in
half the time of a conventional project. The result was a complex project
designed and built with minimal field revisions utilizing BIM to meet an
extremely aggressive schedule.
Source: Healthcare
Global
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