Oak Lawn, IL – Advocate Christ Medical Center today announced it has been awarded the coveted LEED® Gold Certification, established by the U.S. Green Building Council, for its Outpatient Pavilion, which opened in March, 2014. The nine-story, 326,000-square-foot outpatient facility embodies high performance and provides a state-of-the-art facility for advanced medical care.
LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, is the nation’s preeminent program for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. By using less energy, LEED-certified buildings save money for families, businesses and taxpayers; reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and contribute to a healthier environment for residents, workers and the larger community.
Advocate Health Care is nationally recognized for its environmental leadership and is a founding member of the Healthier Hospitals Initiative. “Advocate’s focus has been on guiding the initiative’s work in energy efficiency, and we are proud to continue that tradition with all our new construction at Advocate Christ Medical Center,” stated Kenneth W. Lukhard, president, Christ Medical Center.
The Outpatient Pavilion at Christ Medical Center brings outpatient services, previously scattered in various locations, into one ultra-modern facility and supports the multi-disciplinary practice of medicine. Just as state-of-the-art health care requires a multi-disciplinary medical team, high performance buildings rely on a collaborative design team in all phases of project development.
Highlights of the collaboration to design a green building to use less energy include:
- Careful consideration of the building’s integrated heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC) components as HVAC systems account for such a large share of building energy use.
- Energy systems that work together with high-performance windows and insulation, contributing to energy savings of 28 percent over standard design and construction.
- Reflective building surfaces and white thermoplastic polyolefin TPO roofing that meet ENERGY STAR® standards to help reduce urban heating.
The project’s open patient and family-friendly spaces provide the look and feel of a high performance building. However, many important green design features are not noticeable to the public. These include:
- High efficiency condensing boilers for heating and hot water, as well as high efficiency chillers for cooling.
- Advanced technologies that reduce the energy needed to move conditioned air and water throughout the building, such as:
- high efficiency pumps and fans
- variable-frequency drives
- the innovative use of perimeter fin tube heating during non-occupied hours
Other features supporting the project’s LEED certification are the site’s sustainable qualities, materials, and systems for green building operationsThe building was designed to maximize storm water management and minimize water use through design and native plantings.
- Project materials that, when possible, came from local sources, contain recycled content, and are nonpolluting (low VOC).
- Indoor air quality control is enhanced with exhaust ventilation at localized sources of potential pollution.
- Installation of CO2 (carbon dioxide) sensors ensures maintenance of desired outdoor air quantities.
“The strength of USGBC has always been the collective strength of our leaders in the building industry,” said Rick Fedrizzi, president, CEO and founding chair, U.S. Green Building Council. “Given the extraordinary importance of climate protection and the central role of the building industry in that effort, Advocate Christ Medical Center demonstrates their leadership through their LEED certification of their new outpatient pavilion.”
About Advocate Christ Medical Center
Advocate Christ Medical Center is part of Advocate Health Care, which is one of the nation’s leading health care networks. A not-for-profit, 694-bed, premier teaching institution with more than 1,200 affiliated physicians, Christ Medical Center is a leader in health care and one of the major referral hospitals in the Midwest in a number of specialties, including cardiovascular services, heart, kidney and lung transplantation, neurosciences, oncology, orthopedics and women’s health. The hospital also has one of the busiest Level I trauma centers in Illinois providing emergency care for more than 100,000 patient visits annually and is a leader in breakthrough technologies, including eICU® (electronic intensive care unit) monitoring, robotic da Vinci Surgery System® and CyberKnife® Radiosurgery. For the last three years (2012-2014), the medical center has been named to the Truven Health 100 Top Hospitals® list. U.S. News & World Report has ranked the medical center among the nation’s leading providers for cardiology and heart surgery, geriatric medicine, gynecology and neurology/neurosurgery and rated it overall as being among the top three hospitals in Illinois. The hospital is also recognized by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) as a Magnet Center. Magnet status represents the highest honor in the nursing profession. To obtain more information or to visit our newsroom, log on to: www.advocatehealth.com/cmc