Baptist Health Care Pensacola - Brent Lane Campus

Project Statement

Baptist Health Care Pensacola’s Brent Lane Campus is the new home for the Florida panhandle’s only not-for-profit health system.

In this document, we’ll focus on 3 design qualities central to the project’s success. First, that campus planning creates a meaningful sense of place with public space and architecture that contributes positively to the fabric of the city. Second, that the hospital was designed with sustainable design principles with an emphasis on resiliency. And finally, that the exterior and interior design are rooted in the community and natural environment of Pensacola.

Town Square
The distinguishing feature of the new campus are the many live oaks and magnolias that occupy the site, some 6 feet in diameter and 200 years old. The intent to preserve these trees grew into an overarching goal to design a hospital that embraces and reflects the community of Pensacola. The design sprang from a radical but simple idea: “What if we put a park where the parking lot usually goes?”

Resiliency
The hospital is designed to be maximally resilient, with an ambitious 100-year lifespan. To meet this challenge, the facility can operate off-grid for 4 days including emergency power and potable water. Civil engineering accommodates 1000-year flood levels. Structure and envelope are engineered to withstand 170 mph 3-second wind gusts and 6” thick precast panels resist large debris impacts.

Aesthetics
Finally, for the new hospital to reflect and represent the community, the material palette draws heavily from the natural environment. Fine aggregate used in the precast panels is the same iconic white sand sourced directly from Pensacola. The subtle color variation found in wind swept beaches is achieved with sand-blasted, ribbed, and polished surfaces that catch light and enliven the facade. Building entrances are highlighted with warm, tactile terracotta panels which also characterize the oldest buildings in the historic district built by Spanish settlers.

Framework for Design Excellence Narrative

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**Design for Integration - Elevating design with a thoughtful design process and a “Big Idea.”**

The brown-field site chosen for Baptist Health Care Pensacola’s new medical campus was not glamorous when it was originally identified for its visibility and access. The property was mostly comprised of overgrown parking lots with several abandoned prefab warehouses and a boat repair shop.

But the site was also rampant with massive live oaks, laurel oaks, and magnolias, some hundreds years old, just tucked between buildings and along property lines.

Instead of clear-cutting the site, the design team proposed to organize the entire campus around these sorts of forgotten, marginalized pockets of nature. It took months of work and exploration, but eventually a radically simple idea took hold: “What if we put a park where the parking lot usually goes?”

It also took a leap of faith from Baptist Health Care to commit to the vision of offloading the majority of parking to the perimeter of the site instead of right at the front door. Hospital leadership saw the immense benefits of having this vibrant park at the heart of the campus to create a sense of place.

The town square defines the facility identity. Just a few of the details are:

- Amenities include rehab walking trails, healing gardens, sculptures by local artists, exercise lawns, benches and lunch tables.
- The 2-acre park has become a new “third space” for the community. People from all over Pensacola drive here to eat in the park or do yoga on the lawn.
- Nature serves as a wayfinding tactic so visitors inside the facility always know where they are by simply looking out the window.
- The landscape is irrigated with storm water that’s collected in 3 underground basins. Automatic sensors only water when necessary. No potable water is used for irrigation.


**Design for Communities - Helping communities thrive socially, economically, and environmentally.**

A changing climate creates new risks to infrastructure. It’s imperative that our communities’ most vital institutions employ resilient design principles and create redundancy to better respond during periods of extreme weather. Baptist Health Care has endured several of Northwest Florida’s severe climate events, including Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

An ambitious 100-year lifespan goal was set for the new BHCP Brent Lane campus with the intent that this project be designed to be maximally resilient. To meet this challenge, an extensive “Climate Risk Assessment” was performed which weighs the probability that a particular climate hazard event will happen, and estimates the level of damage and potential financial impact.

In total, the facility can operate off-grid for 4 days. As a result of the team’s dedication to resilient principles, just a few of the other resiliency solutions built into the design:

- 94’ building elevations accommodate 1000-year floods.
- Structure and envelope are engineered to withstand 170 mph 3-second wind gusts.
- 6” precast panels installed on levels 1 and 2 to resist large debris impacts.
- 96 hours of emergency power is available, plus redundant utility connections.
- 4 days of potable water is stored on site.
- N+1 capacity of mechanical systems eliminates service disruption.
- Emergency department HVAC includes a pandemic response mode.
- Storm water supports cooling towers and irrigation systems, saving 3 million gallons of potable water every year.


**Design for Well-Being - Health and well-being for all people; considering physical, mental, and emotional effects.**

Baptist Health Care Pensacola has been designed for patient satisfaction, visitor experience, and staff wellness at every opportunity. For example,

- Views to nature from waiting rooms provide a positive distraction for visitors and who may otherwise feel stressed or uneasy.
- Over 130 photos of Pensacola’s environment create a coordinated super-graphic strategy, designed to promote wayfinding and wellbeing.
- Public spaces invite the outside in, with full height windows, views to nature, and access to outdoor amenities.
- An outdoor dining courtyard provides a comfortable area for staff and visitors to take in fresh air.
- The chapel is a special respite - not quite indoor or outdoor, it provides a sanctuary for people looking for a place to reflect and get away.
- Monumental stairs in the hospital and MOB encourage activity and healthy lifestyles.
- The MOB has received Fitwel certification, an independent measurement for buildings designed to support the wellbeing of their occupants.
- A new bus stop was coordinated on site to provide public transit access to the campus.
- Light wells within diagnostics and treatment departments: Data shows daylight reduces stress and levels of staff fatigue. These departments are too often buried within hospital, leaving occupants windowless.


**Design for Resources** **- informed material and resource selection to minimize possible negative impacts on the planet.**

In addition to the emphasis on resiliency, the hospital and campus incorporate numerous sustainable and energy efficient design tactics. To start, the hospital is oriented with the patient rooms facing north and south to eliminate the excessive glare and heat gain that comes with broad western exposure. Other architectural features to note are:

- The ZeroTool EUI baseline for the project is 244. The project’s predicted EUI is only 141 including the hospital, energy plant, and office buildings.
- Ceramic frit and vertical fins reduce cooling loads.
- The structure uses Type 1L cement, which led to a 13% reduction in embodied carbon.
- Glass on the lower floors is imprinted with a custom bird-safe frit pattern designed to minimize collisions, using more than 400,000 dots.
- Changing the blowing agent for the closed cell spray insulation from HFC to HFO reduced the embodied carbon of the precast envelope assembly by 33%.
- No potable water will be used for cooling towers under normal conditions. Make up water will instead be provided through reclaimed storm water and groundwater. It is estimated that this strategy will save Baptist Hospital approximately 3.6 million gallons of potable water each year. (~ $100,000)
- A dedicated gray water system serves hose bibs located throughout the facility.
- Moisture control irrigation sensors avoid watering already saturated soil.
- Recovery systems captures more than 70% of the energy from exhaust air.
- Heat recovery chillers capture 1m btu/hr in order to preheat domestic hot water. Energy Star rating of 95 for appliances and equipment.


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