Southern
Regional Women’s Center
Riverdale, Georgia
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Studies:Healthcare>Southern Regional Women’s Center
 The
Southern Regional Women’s Center project is the first of its kind,
comprising 100,000 square feet in three stories of health delivery systems
to women and newborns in the Riverdale and south Atlanta area. Tied into
the existing hospital, the concrete structure has a brick facade and an
ornamental entrance canopy cantilevered 30 feet from concrete columns.
The interior is upscale with high-grade millwork and rich finishes.
An open, 2-level atrium with a circular grand staircase serves as the
interior focal point.
The $15 million Women’s Life Center features 8 ante-partum rooms,
10 labor and delivery rooms, 32 post-partum rooms, 4 triage rooms, 10
GYN beds, and a 12-bed NICU nursery. As patient volume increased steadily,
the owner required the new project to be in operation as quickly as possible.
Construction started January 2000 and then center opened, appropriately,
on Mother’s Day 2001.
The project architect set stringent floor depth limits in order to maximize
the ceiling cavity available in the floor-to-floor design height of 14
feet. A “skip joist” and beam system with conventional
reinforcing was selected to span the 35 x 35-foot typical bays. The
joist depth was limited to 16 inches and supported a 4?-inch-thick slab
to provide the required 2-hour fire rating. In order to maintain a constant
elevation for the floor bottom, the supporting beams were post tensioned
to match the joist depth and were 24 or 36 inches in width.
Unlike the steel framing alternate considered for this project,
the concrete floor system provided a constant bottom of floor surface
to facilitate routing and installation of MEP utilities. It also eliminated
the need for spray-applied or drywall fireproofing, which would
have slowed down construction, added cost, and made future changes in
piping and conduit more difficult. Actually the project team cooperated
to locate and form the required number of sleeved openings and penetrations
in the concrete floor. And in some instances, spare sleeves and penetrations
were formed and capped in anticipation of future piping and utility needs.
The upfront coordination paid off given the extensive nature of the MEP
systems required to support over 40 upscale patient rooms.
Auger-cast piles 14 inches in diameter were used due to poor soil conditions
at the project site. Typical 18-inch square columns were cast monolithically
with the infill concrete walls in the terrace level underground and extended
the full height of the building. Concrete shearwalls forming the
stair and elevator shafts were designed to carry lateral wind loads.
The 12-inch-thick wall elements and the building frame called for 4000-psi
normal weight concrete, while the floor system utilized 5000-psi lightweight
concrete to minimize the number of piles.
This hospital aimed to provide a feeling of rich southern comfort and
hospitality and is delivering it with an attractive concrete building.
Pre-construction studies by the contractor concluded that concrete
was the economical option from a cost and schedule standpoint.
With the shallow floor depth, no fireproofing, and a constant depth MEP
ceiling cavity, concrete was clearly the way to go.
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| Architect:
CDH Partners
Marietta, GA
Structural Engineer:
Pruitt Eberly Stone Atlanta, GA
General Contractor:
R. J. Griffin & Company
Atlanta, GA
Concrete Contractor:
Harcon, Inc.
Concrete Supplier:
LaFarge
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