William R. Sharpe Hospital,
Weston, WV
The completed 50-acre development sits
atop a hilly site formerly farmed by the W.V. Dept. of Agriculture, 10 minutes from the
original hospital it replaces. After its design inception, the vision of a first-rate
psychiatric treatment facility for West Virginia was finally completed.
PROJECT INFORMATION
150 Bed Psychiatric Hospital
Architect: Blackwood Associates, Inc.
Building Cost: $30 Million
Building Area: 217,000 sq. ft.
Number of Floors: Two
Completed: June 1994
Location: Lewis County, West Virginia
General Contractor: Pray Contracting, Inc.
PROJECT GOALS
The project team was first
assembled on Easter Sunday, 1987 after a phone call from Dr. David K. Heydinger, former
Director of Health of West Virginia. Dr. Heydinger’s initial assignment to the
Architect was direct:
- Design a stand-alone psychiatric
hospital that would replace the existing Civil War-era facility located in Weston, WV.
- Ensure that the new Hospital met
current Federal government and JCAH design standards.
- Create an environment in which the
healing process would be supported and encouraged.
- Produce
a superior facility that
would be an example for the rest of the Country and in which the people of West Virginia
could take pride.
Although the
Architect had Dr. Heydinger’s "picture" of the Project, an actual program
had not been developed. Literally "starting from scratch" on the design,
numerous meetings were held with representatives of the WV Department of Health and Human
Resources (DHHR), the staff of the existing Weston State Hospital, the West Virginia
University’s School of Medicine/Psychiatry, and other experts in the psychiatric
field. Over a period of 18 months, the final design emerged.
During the design process, input
from Weston State Hospital made it obvious to the Architect that both DHHR and JCAH
minimum space standards were, in some ways, inadequate for this new psychiatric
facility’s needs. (As an example, areas eventually developed for unit offices and
ancillary support on the individual patient wards exceed standards by 75%, because of the
staff’s Unit-Based treatment and evaluation philosophy).
In a concerted effort to draw the
higher-functioning patients out of their resident rooms and wards, the village concept was
developed and centered in the "hub" area of the Facility. Within this area,
educational, recreational, spiritual, avocational, expressive and dining services are
provided, which act as encouragement for patient interaction, and as ongoing
"reward" therapy.
MAIN BUILDING FUNCTIONS:
Patient registration and admitting,
psychiatric emergency and triage, accounting, record keeping, administration, evaluation,
treatment, therapy, food service vending and dining, personal care, educational,
recreational, lab and pharmacy, medical, personnel development, shipping and receiving,
and security.
ENGINEERING SERVICES BUILDING:
Utilities, generators, boilers,
chillers, cooling, towers, engineering and maintenance, systems monitoring, building and
vehicle maintenance shops, and waste handling.
SPECIAL SITE FEATURES:
Mile long access road, roadway
bridge over a creek; 250,000 gallon water tank and tower; non-biohazard waste incinerator;
340 parking spaces.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Extensive use of skylights and
curtainwalls; therapy pool; future greenhouse.
LIFE SAFETY SYSTEMS
Fire alarm, fire sprinklering,
smoke/fire-resistive construction; engineered smoke control system; separate emergency and
standby generators.
HVAC SYSTEM
Central station, 4-pipe AHU’s
(located in above-floor mezzanines), with "Energy Recovery" air exchangers;
ducted Supply and Return Air with VAV boxes and reheat.
SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT
Integrated, DDC-based computer,
fully addressable for temperature control, fire alarm, and smoke control.
STRUCTURE
Steel frame; Slab-on-grade and slab
on metal deck floors; metal deck roofs.
ROOFING
Insulated single-ply EPDM and
sloping metal panels.
EXTERIOR WALLS
Curtainwalls; Gypsum board and
metal studs with face brick (non-patient areas); CMU with veneer plaster and face brick
(patient and "public" areas).
INTERIOR PARTITIONS
Storefronts; Gypsum board and metal
studs, (non-patient areas); CMU and veneer plaster (patient and "public" areas).
PRIMARY CEILING TYPES
Suspended acoustical lay-in panels,
linear wood and gypsum board (non-patient areas); vandal-resistant acoustical tile, linear
wood and gypsum board or plaster.
