Memorial Hermann Healthcare System’s East Tower and Methodist Olive Branch Hospital received Award of Merit recognition 

Smith Seckman Reid, Inc. (SSR) a leader among engineering firms in designing, consulting, and commissioning projects is proud to announce that two of its projects have been recognized by Engineering News-Record’s Regional Best Projects 2014, a program that honors the best construction projects and the companies that designed and built them in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.  Both Memorial Hermann Healthcare System’s East Tower and Methodist Olive Branch Hospital received Award of Merit recognition from the Texas & Louisiana region.

“It was a privilege to work with an owner like Methodist who had the vision and courage to engage a new process to meet some very stringent scope and budget challenge,” said Clay Seckman, Senior Principal with SSR. “The entire project team stepped up to those challenges and delivered a top quality project that will enable Methodist to meet their long term strategic objectives in the Olive Branch community.”

Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Hospital, located in The Woodlands, TX, is dedicated to providing the latest advances in healthcare at a local level. The Memorial Hermann Helathcare System facility is consistently ranked among the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals® by Truven Health Analytics. The new East Tower addition includes eight surgical suites (bringing the campus total to 21 suites), expanded Pre-Op, Recovery, and waiting areas, new Central Sterile processing, a cosmetic upgrade to existing surgical suites, and an expansion of the Star Lobby including Pre-Admit, Radiology, and Admission areas.

SSR provided mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and technology design services for the addition. The detached central plant was expanded, which involved the swapping out existing cooling towers.  This involved adding normal and emergency distribution system and the addition of 1.5 MW generator and paralleling gear. Because it was necessary for the hospital to remain fully functional during expansion, SSR was faced with additional challenges so as not to disrupt other systems. SSR delivered the project in 3D using Revit MEP.

Methodist Olive Branch Hospital (MOBH), located in Olive Branch, MS, was designed with a goal of delivering an energy efficient, LEED® certified modern healthcare facility without exceeding the budget. To help achieve this goal, the project team employed Integrated Project Delivery (IPD), Building Information Modeling (BIM), and lean construction practices, all of which ultimately allowed the team to deliver a successful project ahead of schedule and below budget. The 208,000 square-foot facility includes four operating rooms, 18 emergency department exam rooms, an intensive care unit, and labor and delivery facilities. MOBH is one of six LEED for Healthcare certified facilities in the world and one of three LEED for Healthcare certified inpatient facilities in the U.S.

“Rarely do we have projects from different regions earn such prestigious awards at the same time,” said Seckman. We are pleased that we’re contributing to the built environment with quality projects that are meeting and exceeding our client’s expectations.  The awards are great, but knowing we’re providing for the public good is much more satisfying.”

The facility utilizes ground source geothermal heat pump system for heating and cooling. The geothermal system uses flowing water to extract heat from the ground in the winter and discharge heat into the ground in the summer. Other project components include dedicated outside air units, extensive use of LED lighting fixtures, aggressive lighting watts/SF, battery free flywheel systems for critical branch, IT, and radiology equipment, uninterrupted power, Tier 4 emissions emergency generator sets, includes automatic JCAHO reporting on the emergency power system, and power monitoring of the distribution system. SSR provided civil, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection, and technology design services, in addition to commissioning, energy modeling, measurement and verification, and LEED facilitation consulting services.

ENR’s Regional Best Projects are judged by independent juries of industry leaders in design and construction from each of ENR’s 10 regional editions. Each project is judged using five criteria, including safety, innovation, and teamwork

About SSR

Smith Seckman Reid, Inc. (SSR) is an employee owned corporation, headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. Our firm is focused on providing engineering, commissioning, and technology services across the United States and around the world. Our services are of the highest quality, based on the in-depth experience and expertise of our engineers, consultants, and all of our staff. To learn more, visit www.ssr-inc.com.