St. Francis Hospital Medical Center

the story

SLAM Construction Services provided pre-construction and construction management services for two phases of renovations to an existing 1930’s 57,500 SF 5-story building into a class A office space and a new Tier 3 Data Center located on the St. Francis Hospital campus in downtown Hartford. Tier 3 requires redundant mechanical, electrical, data and power feeds to the space.

Phase 1 included a systematic gut and renovation of the entire MEP infrastructure, bathroom cores, elevator, roofing and interior spaces on all five floors. Phase 2 was a design-build for their data center located on the first floor. The renovated building now serves as a hub for Saint Francis’s IT and finance department, network operations and call center.

at-a-glance

TYPE:

Renovation

SERVICES:

Construction Services

Design Build

Pre-Construction Services

LOCATION:

Hartford, CT

STATUS:

Completed 2016

SIZE:

57,500 SF

Renovations to an existing building into a class A office space and a new Tier 3 Data Center located on the St. Francis Hospital downtown Hartford campus was highly technical in nature. The challenges of this project included an occupied multi-phased renovation, total infrastructure upgrades and a site with a high water table, buried non-functioning cistern system, environmental remediation and a structural slab that needed careful attention during renovation.

The new Data Center required redundant systems, multiple controls and specialty products. The new connection to the hospital building included a 96 trans-fiber optic line in two separate independent feeds that had to cross a 5-lane state road that serviced emergency vehicles, ran through city utility lines and two adjoining properties.

SLAM CS phased the initial renovation work to accommodate building occupancy and complicated infrastructure upgrades necessary for the success of the phase 2 data center project. This multi-phased approach ensured a safe and comfortable work environment for building occupants, with little disruption throughout demolition and renovation.

The design-build efforts of the MEP systems produced a thorough set of plans and specifications for the project which resulted in zero change orders.

“SLAM CS executed this complex, multi-phased project which included the construction of a new state-of-the-art Tier III data center in an aging 1930’s building. The team successfully managed the additional challenge of completing this extensive renovation while the building was occupied and operational.”

Robert Falaguerra

VP Facilities, Support Services and Construction Saint Francis Hospital & Medical Center

A BIM (Building Information modeling) was created to coordinate 3-D model of the electrical and mechanical piping feeding the data center. The pipe and support fit within a 11 inch vertical floor space.

Three generators were set in place to assure uninterrupted power for data.

The Tier 3 data center need 2 separate power sources that crossed major city streets. Generator power was also imperative.

This multi-phased renovation project resulted in continued occupancy during the project and saved on escalation costs for the second phase by incorporating the extensive infrastructure upgrades during the first phase.
In addition, SLAM CS coordinated multiple specialty Information Technology vendors and equipment and performed extensive commissioning and building management system training for Saint Francis Hospital staff.