by Heather Livingston
Contributing Editor

How do you . . . give hospital patients easy and ample access to nature?

Summary: During conceptual design, the owner and design team believed that creating a healing garden for the new Parrish Health Center didn’t go far enough. Instead, they created a “healing environment” by establishing a nature preserve on the site of the new Titusville, Fla., health care facility.

When the town of Port St. John, Fla., decided it needed a new hospital for its growing population, it selected RTKL to find a site. One of the possibilities was a centrally and conveniently located 33.5 acre parcel in Titusville. The only problem with it was that approximately 30 percent of the site was a Florida Scrub Jay habitat. The jay is a threatened and therefore protected bird in the state and the Florida scrub has been cited as one of the most endangered ecosystems in North America.

The site
While it might have made sense to leave the site entirely for the birds, the client and RTKL pushed for the site and therefore turned a potential liability into a tremendous asset for the Parrish Health Center and the community. RTKL Principal and Project Manager Mike Hoffmeyer, AIA, says that from the outset the design team wanted to make the most of the setting by creating a healing site rather than a small-scale healing garden.

“The hospital really does want to be known as environmentally friendly,” says Hoffmeyer. “Thus, they went ahead and applied for LEED® Silver rating. They also wanted to respect and enhance the wildlife area of this Florida property, so they wanted to have the property known as a health-care facility and natural preserve.”

At the Parrish Healthcare Center at Port St. John, approximately half of the site has been kept untouched as a nature preserve, a benefit to the environment and patients and visitors to the facility. [Ed. note: At present, fully two-thirds of the site are undisturbed, but long range plans do exist that would bring the total developed percentage to 50.) During construction, care was taken that construction activity didn’t harm or disturb the birds or the site more than was absolutely necessary. Existing vegetation was preserved and new plants were added to complement the natural scrub ecology. Rainwater is collected and held in several retention ponds for natural irrigation.

The building
The 72,235-square-foot outpatient diagnostic, therapy, and medical office building has a glass façade, which faces north and east to help visitors and patients remain connected visually with nature while shielding the interior from direct sun. Natural light and views to the nature preserve also are plentiful on the south and west sides, but provide heat gain protection from the intense Floridian sun. The interior colors and finishes are high-performance, low or no-VOC, and provide connections to nature by echoing the colors of the outdoor environment.

Preference was given to materials that were manufactured regionally, improve indoor air quality, require minimal maintenance, contain recycled content, and are rapidly renewable. Carpet and ceiling tiles with recycled content and recycled glass was used in floor tile and countertops. Commercial grade bamboo, linoleum, and rubber flooring were incorporated throughout, and wheatboard was used for casework in place of pressed fiberboard.

The building features a heat-reflecting roof and light pollution was addressed by specifying downward-directed lights. Waterless urinals, low-flow toilets, and metered faucets were used for water efficiency. Motion sensors and timers were added for lighting controls. Traction elevators were employed to eliminate the need for hydraulic fluids, and designated rooms were created for trash and recycling. In addition, Green Touchscreen kiosks were added to provide educational information on the facility, the Florida Scrub Jay, and the ecology of the site to hospital staff, visitors, and patients.

The process
Hoffmeyer believes that the tremendous success achieved on the Parrish project is due in large part to a series of meetings that were conducted during conceptual design. The strategy teaming sessions incorporated all aspects of the facility users: hospital administration, service line directors, the consulting team, landscape architect, architect, MEP engineer, structural engineer, low voltage consultant. Everyone brainstormed goals for the project and then voted on each objective separately to determine degree of desirability. Then, the group voted on whether each goal had a high or low degree of difficulty, resulting in realistic and broadly accepted goals that were designated by a cross section of team members. Hoffmeyer says that the buy-in created during those initial strategy sessions helped ensure the successful outcome of the project.

“We designed Parrish Healthcare Center to provide patients with compassionate, state-of-the-art care in a green environment unlike anything else in the area,” said Beau Herr, vice president of RTKL and project director. “In addition to its sustainable design features, the facility also successfully accommodates difficult environmental restrictions that were placed on the site.” The design team’s decision to develop the site not only created a truly unique healing facility in a natural environment, but also has the benefits of protecting the Scrub Jay habitat in perpetuity and providing an opportunity for locals to learn about the bird and what it needs to thrive.