Customers with specialized plumbing and HVAC building requirements rely on us at A. T. Chadwick Company. Since 1966, we have helped provide all types of systems for buildings old and new. In this project we were granted the contract to install the plumbing and HVAC systems for the Buerger Building at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).
Our customer had already experienced our quality design, construction, and installation, as we had previously worked on the Ruth and Tristan Colket building on the same campus. The Buerger Building was specially designed to accommodate advanced pediatric care. Every medical procedure that could be done in other hospitals, such as MRIs and chemotherapy, were also to be performed at this new building. The building was to have a number of additional features as well, including a rock climbing wall and a large garden on both the ground and sixth floors. These specialized architectural features added considerably to the complexity of our job, and our challenges didn’t stop there. The project also entered a compressed schedule starting in January 2014 and ending in May of the same year. We needed to find innovative methods to finish the project in a timely manner, all with no compromise on quality.
New 700,000 SF, 12-story ambulatory care center at CHOPS
We began our work a year before construction started by developing CAD and BIM drawings to take some of the space limitations of the new building into consideration. The building was to have an ornate lobby with spiral ramps, and we had to fit our piping and equipment in restricted and tight spaces, as the lobby was off limits. We also needed to develop two-story air handlers as the building was being constructed, as well as designating pathways for moving materials through areas with serious space constraints. It was also constructed over a five story deep excavation site, the largest in Philadelphia’s history. With all the challenges involved, we were still able to construct and install the full plumbing and HVAC systems for the Buerger building within our deadline.
The Buerger Building on the CHOP campus has been a resounding success. In addition to being a beautiful addition to the city’s skyline, it has created an important space to provide the best pediatric care available. It was a pleasure to play our role in getting this building in functional operation. To learn more about this project, please contact us directly.