The Challenge
The Imaging Center Project required the conversion of a 1990’s office building to a modern Medical Office Building. ADI Construction worked with VHC and the Design Team to upgrade the building’s structure and mechanical systems to support a new 4th Floor Multi–Imaging Center. This allowed for the ultimate capacity of 3 MRIs, 2 CTs, 2 Nuclear Medicine, 1 X-Ray and 2 Mammogram machines. Due to the weight of the MRIs, CTs and Nuclear Medicine equipment, the existing 4th floor concrete slab was required to be structurally upgraded to support the new equipment.
The Approach
Installation of the major equipment required removal of the buildings exterior precast and glazing in order to crane the new equipment into their new locations. To support the air quality requirements of the new Imaging Center, the existing Rooftop evaporatively-cooled system was replaced with 120,000 CFM and 440-ton cooling capacity units to meet future building needs, all of which was design/built to be installed on top of the existing AHU unit curb.
The Result
The VHC Imaging Project included 3 major components:
1. Buildout of a new 20,000 sq.ft. Imaging Center including MRI, CT, X-Ray and Nuclear Med facilities on the 4th floor of the building.
2. Reinforcement to the underside of the 4th Floor to support the overload of this new equipment.
3. Replacement of the building’s existing 35-year-old AHU/Cooling Tower with a newly engineered system with almost 30 % increase in capacity and energy recovery.
Major achievements included early completion by over 2 months, structural upgrades working nights to allow for occupied medical offices to operate during normal hours and the Rooftop AHU replacement in 48 hours (over a weekend) so that the building did not experience any inconvenience during normal operations. The new Rooftop unit required structural support for the new 120,000 lbs unit. Significant cost savings were realized by reusing the existing cold formed metal curbing that supported the old unit to support the new 5 compartment rooftop unit. Electrical upgrades included new 800 amp switch and power feeds to align with requirements of the new unit.
