BKM provided mechanical and plumbing design for the new the Dennis Avenue Health Clinic, a two-story facility.
The new building was constructed without greatly impacting its ongoing facility activities. The new facility was built to comply with all building codes and the Americans with Disabilities Act, while also designed to achieve LEED Gold rating. The new facility now houses the following program areas: communicable disease and epidemiology, director’s office, sexually transmitted disease services, human immunodeficiency virus services, disease control vital records, public health emergency preparedness and response, public health emergency preparedness and response warehouse, immunization program, refugee program, tuberculosis control program, dental services, command center, and meeting rooms and shared spaces.
In addition to providing acceptable heating and cooling conditions within the health center, there were several additional objectives required of the HVAC system serving this facility. The system was designed to be highly reliable and energy efficient, providing for redundancy of major components. Additional priorities of the mechanical systems included high efficiency air filtration, high ventilation rates in accordance with healthcare standards, as well as proper air pressurization to mitigate the opportunity for cross contamination of airborne elements from the TB/refugee areas. In addition, the systems were provided with back-up emergency power and included provisions for phasing relative to the existing building on site.
