Client

Healthcare Corporation of America

Location

Reston, VA

Services

Commissioning

Reston Hospital Center is a full-service hospital serving the commonwealth’s most heavily populated counties. Looking to increase the size of their campus to better serve patients, Healthcare Corporation of America (HCA) added a new 150,000-square-foot, six-story medical office building to the campus. The organization called on Gresham Smith to commission the new space to enhance its energy performance. By working closely with the owner, contractors and hospital maintenance personnel, our commissioning agents certified that the building’s systems were designed, constructed and operated for peak performance. The project successfully achieved LEED Silver certification, achieving record energy performance on the Reston Hospital Center Campus.

150k
square feet
15%
reduction in annual energy consumption
1st
LEED Silver certified project on hospital campus

Testing an Assortment of Systems

We commissioned the medical office building’s domestic water heating system, cooling tower, chilled water pumps, air handlers, energy recovery units, lighting controls, HVAC, building automation system and fire alarm system interface. There were a few surprises along the way, including when we discovered that the energy recovery units were putting the building’s duct work at risk, but we worked closely with the project’s subcontractors to find a solution that kept the project on time and on budget.

Engineering-Commissioning

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

As the project’s LEED commissioning agents, we established open lines of communication and clearly defined the roles and responsibilities for each team member at the beginning of the design process. By communicating early and often, we were able to identify potential errors and omissions early, ultimately reducing installation issues and mitigating problems that may arise during startup.

LEED Silver Certified

Local zoning required that the new building be LEED Silver certified. By testing and validating the high-efficiency equipment, energy recovery methods, variable speed fans and enhanced building automation controls, we confirmed a 15 percent reduced annual energy consumption and utility costs over ASHRAE’s baseline.