The opening of the massive new $1.03 billion Fort Belvoir Community Hospital at Fort Belvoir, VA marks the culmination of five years of interservice collaboration to complete one of the military’s largest and most involved medical Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) projects. The 1.27 million square foot facility will replace DeWitt Army Community Hospital and will also absorb some services and patients from the recently closed Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Fort Belvoir Community Hospital includes a nine-story main hospital building, two three-story clinical buildings and a pair of two-story clinical buildings. The project has achieved LEED Silver certification and is striving to attain LEED Gold.
HDR/Dewberry designed the world class facility, which combines technology and data to advance healthcare services for active duty U.S. military members, retirees and their families.
In combination with glass curtain wall, the exteriors of the hospital’s various buildings are comprised of terra cotta panels and the patented Dri-Design dry joint, pressure-equalized rainscreen cladding system. In all, some 36,000 Dri-Design panels, fabricated from 1mm-thick VM Quartz Zinc, were installed to cover approximately 120,000 sq. ft. of wall surface. The terra cotta panels were also installed in accordance with rainscreen technology.
Rainscreen technology is being employed more and more in the design of high-performance buildings, such as medical centers, laboratories, etc., as a means of meeting increased exterior performance requirements, whether voluntary or mandated. But the affordability of the Dri-Design system makes them good candidates for interior applications as well. On this project, painted Dri-Design panels are featured at various locations around the campus, including in the stairwell entry areas.
The facility was built by Turner Gilbane, a joint venture between Turner Construction and Gilbane Building Company.
With the normal 10-year procurement cycle needing to be reduced to a five-year process in order to meet the BRAC timeline, the hospital was designed and constructed using Integrated/Design/Bid/Build (IDBB). The completion time was just over three years—half the time it normally takes to build a facility of similar magnitude.
According to Col. Susan Annicelli, commander of Fort Belvoir Community Hospital, “This is America’s newest, most extraordinary, most technically advanced facility and we are proud to have it in the military health system.”
Dri-Design panels are 100% recyclable and can be made from a variety of materials including zinc, copper, stainless steel and painted and anodized aluminum. Panels are available in any Kynar color and are sized and detailed to meet the specific requirements of each project. This cost effective system is Dade County and AAMA 508-07 approved.