Morristown Memorial Hospital wins LEED Gold for WHR Architects’ floor renovation

At Morristown Memorial Hospital in Morristown, New Jersey, the renovation of a single floor, Simon Level 5, has received a Gold LEED Commercial Interiors certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. The 14,070 square foot project, the renovation of a 1948 semi private room bed floor into an in-patient unit focused on oncology patients, encompasses 30 patient rooms and support areas including a nurses station, pharmacy, a staff lounge, two waiting rooms and administrative offices. Although small in scope the project has had high impact at the hospital, demonstrating that sustainability can be achieved despite the challenges of being located in an existing building.

“Early in the design process, the hospital decided that the Simon Level 5 renovation would be an example of green building design at Morristown Memorial Hospital,” Charles Griffin, Senior Principal at WHR.  “They recognized that the project would establish a precedent and have positive effects on the hospital as a whole. They are to be commended for their long-term thinking.”

Located in the Simon Building, which serves as the main entrance leading into the Morristown Memorial Hospital campus, the project comprises three patient room wings connected by a centralized nursing station and elevator lobby. Patient rooms are located along the perimeter of the building, making them easily accessible to nursing staff. Newly installed air-handling units on the building’s rooftop and deck-to-deck wall partition provide patient room ventilation and air conditioning.

The project is designed to 25% water use reduction and 21.28% lighting power density reduction. In addition, 77% of construction waste was recycled and diverted away from the landfill.  Sustainable project materials and high indoor environmental quality (IEQ) were a focus of the design and construction, resulting in a12.6% materials with recycled content, 61% manufactured regionally, and 13 of 35 LEED points achieved by the project coming from the IEQ category.

The hospital’s decision to reuse all of the patient beds resulted in 68% furniture reuse for the project, thus capitalizing on existing resources to conserve the new. The project’s urban location with a transportation network and community connectivity also contributed towards the LEED certification.

In an effort to make the entire Simon building more energy efficient, improvements were made to other portions of the building outside the immediate project scope. The two new air-handling units were sized not only serve the 5th floor, but to improve the indoor air quality of floors 2-4 as well. Improvements were also made on the Simon building rooftop where fifty-three percent of the building’s rooftop was replaced with a new, high-reflective, roofing material.

“Small projects like this are increasingly important in achieving bigger sustainability goals,” notes Komal Kotwal, who led the sustainability effort for WHR. “When tight budgets restrict new building, we can still make significant, if incremental, progress with projects like Simon5.”

WHR Architects is a full service architecture, interior design and technology planning firm. With over 120 people in Houston and Dallas, Texas, Washington DC and New Jersey, the 32-year-old firm is working on projects throughout the US for top–tier public and private education and medical institutions. Guided by the philosophy of “Architecture with People in Mind,” the firm’s approach to sustainable design recognizes the interdependence of a healthful environment and the wellbeing of the people who use it.