Construction Specialties -Hospital Grade Wall Protection Parkland Memorial Hospital
Construction Specialties - Hospital Grade Wall Protection at Parkland Memorial Hospital
Parkland Memorial Hospital is lined with 43,631 metres of Acrovyn Handrails, Crash Rails and Corner Guards and 500 metres of Acrovyn 4000 sheet. The hospital’s transformation resulted in a high level of durability that meets the hospital’s rigorous environmental standards.
Built in 1954, Parkland Memorial Hospital’s one million square foot facility housed an ageing infrastructure that left few options for renovation. When re-envisioning the facility, the project’s architects, HDR + Corgan, and contractors, Balfour Beatty Construction, Austin Commercial, H.J. Russell & Co. and Azteca Enterprises Inc. (BARA), worked within strict environmental standards to deliver major improvements that will last decades.
Today, the new 862-bed Parkland Memorial Hospital is one of the largest public hospitals in the United States at 213,677 square metres. To ensure the new hospital’s corridors and walls were environmentally friendly, durable and could withstand constant use by more than 30,000 patients each day, the team turned to Construction Specialties (CS) for over 27 miles of extruded material and nearly 500 metres of Acrovyn Sheet.
The design team was tasked with creating a high-end space that met strict functionality and durability requirements. The facility, which faces more than one million patient visits each year, needed to last at least 50 years despite intense use. Feedback was gathered for specific interior spaces from numerous professionals and stakeholders such as patients, families and nurses to ensure the design fit well. The sheer size and level of use of the new Parkland Memorial Hospital played a significant role in how the interior design unfolded.
The Parkland team made extensive use of physical mockups that began before the project broke ground to ensure that specific spaces were sized properly. The results include rooms that are 33 square metres, with spacious family zones. The facility is lined with PVC-free Acrovyn 4000 Sheet, Handrails, Crash Rails and Corner Guards.
Securing environmentally friendly products from CS was essential. "We based our specifications around Acrovyn because the product was PVC-free without an upcharge and this standard was critical for us," said Kathy Harper, vice president of clinical coordination for Parkland Health & Hospital System. "Very few products have the quality that CS is known for. Parkland was designed with patient needs in mind, and that was how we chose all of the materials to build our facilities," said Harper.