2001 Eminent Conceptor | 2001 Honor | 2001 Special Achievment | 2001 Merit

KJWW ENGINEERING CONSULTANTS
Nation's Largest Geothermal System
Owner/Client: Great River Medical Center
Consultants: NBBJ Architecture Design, OH

Great River Medical Center is a $120 million new medical campus comprising a 406,000 square-foot hospital, two (2) 90,000+ square foot medical office buildings, and a separate laundry facility. The uniqueness of the Great River Medical Center campus is the lake-coupled geothermal system--the nation's largest--that heats and cools the buildings.

The geothermal system overcomes three major challenges to advance the engineering industry and satisfy the project goals: 1) Use in a hospital application-one of the first in the nation-as a means to provide flexible, efficient patient and staff comfort; 2) System size which uses a 15-acre man-made lake as the thermal source and is capable of producing 1,500-tons of cooling; and 3) A fast track delivery method with lake and buildings constructed in 18 months.

As a non-profit medical center, the owner's goal was to build one of the most cost-effective medical facilities in the county minimizing energy usage and construction costs to keep health care costs affordable for the community. Geothermal technology provided the owner clean, reliable, renewable, environmentally-friendly, flexible, and cost-effective energy.