Another milestone has been reached in the construction of the new University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro: the last stage of steel-frame construction at the new hospital has been completed.
Plainsboro and hospital officials marked the occasion with a traditional “topping out” ceremony, in which an evergreen tree and an American flag was placed on top of the last 30-foot steel beam used in the hospital’s frame and carried by crane to secure it into place. The beam was signed by various state, local, and hospital officials before being raised. The tree symbolizes good luck and was raised to the structure’s highest point.
During the ceremony, hospital officials also announced a $7 million incentive package from PSE&G — including a $5.5 million grant and a $1.5 million loan — to help support some of the approximately $60 million in green initiatives planned at the hospital.
Including in those intiatives are a cogeneration plant — a 4.6 megawatt natural gas-fired cogeneration plan, developed in partnership with NRG Energy Inc, headquartered at 211 Carnegie Center in West Windsor — solar shading, solar power, and thermal energy storage. The exterior of the patient tower will be clad with a large system of sun-shielding exterior louvers to allow the building to have expansive windows to provide 90 percent of interior spaces with natural light, a press release stated.
This initiative shields the interior of the building from the sun’s heat and saves on cooling costs.
As for solar power, there will be 15 solar groves, used to convert sunlight directly into electricity, placed over a portion of the hospital’s parking lot to produce enough energy to power 30 average-sized single family homes.
The funding from PSE&G comes from the utility’s new Hospital Efficiency Program, which is available for new constructiob and retrofit projects at facilities in PSE&G’s territory.
Located on 50 acres of a 160-acre site in Plainsboro off Route 1, the new University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro (UMCPP) is a replacement hospital for the current UMCP on Witherspoon Street in Princeton. When the new hospital opens in late 2011, it will consist of 636,000 square feet of interior space, including 237 single patient rooms, operating rooms, treatment areas, and an emergency department, which will be double the size of the current one.
The new medical center will be located on a campus that will also include a medical office building, a fitness and wellness center, a health education center, a senior residential community, a skilled nursing facility, pediatric services, and a 32-acre public park along the Millstone River.
