Piedmont Atlanta Hospital – a 643-bed, private, not-for-profit hospital – is a leader in patient care that has helped the Atlanta community get better and stay well for more than a century.

Marcus Tower was the first project of the master facilities plan for Piedmont's main hospital in Atlanta.

Location: Atlanta, Georgia

Owner: Piedmont Healthcare

Architect: HKS

Engineer: HPD Consulting Engineers

Construction Manager: Brasfield & Gorrie

Mechanical Contractor: Batchelor & Kimball

Products/Manufacturers:

Air Handling Units/Temtrol, Fan Coil Units/Price

Supply and Exhaust Fans/Cook

The tower stands 16 stories tall, houses up to 408 hospital beds, and has 16 operating rooms, for a 22% increase in capacity. In April of 2020, the tower opened early to provide capacity for Covid-19 response.

The team of HPD Consulting Engineers and Batchelor & Kimball had worked with Tom Barrow Company on many healthcare projects in the past. Tom Barrow Company was honored to be asked to assist the project team in the design process of this flagship project.

Temtrol air handling units, Price fan coil units, and Cook fans are the basis of the design.

Twenty-five Temtrol air handling units provide the air conditioning and heating for the tower. The units are equipped with fanwall supply and return fan arrays, including redundant variable frequency drives, for system airflow redundancy; hospital grade HEPA filters; heating and cooling coils; and humidifiers. Units that serve operating rooms are additionally furnished with sub-cooling coils to deliver the low temperature air required to maintain the cool space temperatures for surgeons. All units are thermally insulated with R20 foam insulation in 3" thick double wall panels.

Air is delivered to the space through more than 500 Price Industries SDV Single Duct Air Terminals with hot water heating coils. In addition, 59 Price BCH and FCHG Horizontal Fan Coil Units are utilized to cool additional spaces such as electrical rooms, telephone rooms, stairwells, and elevator lobbies.

Cook utility sets provide the exhaust from the isolation rooms and have redundant belt drives, so airflow is maintained in the event of a belt failure. Fans provide general exhaust from the restrooms and storage areas. Smoke exhaust fans are in the operating rooms and lab areas. Additionally, special high temperature fans exhaust the hot air from the large emergency generators in the central energy plant.

“This was an exciting project to be a part of, from the integration of multiple systems to ensuring the right air solution products were selected to meet the strict guidelines hospitals must adhere to for safety,” shared Mark Lance, Sales Engineer – Atlanta branch, Tom Barrow Company.

Marcus Tower Piedmont Hospital Exterior Views
Interior Piedmont Hospital Atlanta

Photo Source: HKS, hksinc.com

Challenges:

  • Simultaneously design and construct in order to complete the equipment design and provide solutions to meet the changing design requirements, as well as keep within the project budget.

Solutions:

  • Piedmont Hospital used the construction manager process to deliver their facility as quickly and efficiently as possible.
  • Contractors were brought on early in the process, and the project construction began prior to the completion of the mechanical design.
  • Although Tom Barrow Company’s products were the design basis, each product went through a competitive bid process to keep within the project budget.

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