Upper East Side hospital
Developing a phased retrocommissioning and decarbonization roadmap that preserves healthcare redundancy and uninterrupted operations.
The challenge
The 21-story, approximately 800,000-square-foot hospital was completed in 2019 but continued to operate at a high energy-use intensity. Its systems had been designed to provide the redundancy required of a healthcare facility, yet central settings based on the most demanding medical spaces resulted in simultaneous heating and cooling, overventilation and unnecessary reheating elsewhere. The building also rejected substantial thermal energy through exhaust air, cooling towers and its combined heat-and-power plant while continuing to use natural gas for space heating and domestic hot water. Any transition needed to improve system performance without compromising critical operating conditions or interrupting patient care.
The system approach
URBS developed a phased roadmap beginning with retrocommissioning measures that improve the performance of existing equipment. Initial actions focused on correcting controls, recalibrating operating setpoints and optimizing air-handling sequences to reduce unnecessary heating, cooling and ventilation before introducing major capital upgrades. The roadmap then separates specialist medical areas from spaces with less demanding requirements. This allows central systems to operate more efficiently while maintaining precise conditions and redundancy where they are essential. Heat-recovery loops capture energy from exhaust air and chilled-water systems for reuse in domestic hot water and space heating. Later phases progressively electrify the remaining heating loads, with each intervention sequenced around the hospital’s existing infrastructure and continuous operating requirements.