MEDITECH SOUTHCOAST BUILDING:
Bringing Façade and Building Technologies Together to Create a Sustainable, High-Performance Advanced Façade 

18 February, 2009
Situated in the southeastern part of Massachusetts with a panoramic glass façade that capitalizes on water views, the Medical Information Technology, Inc. (MEDITECH) Building, also called "MEDITECH Southcoast", is a tribute to the community and a major component of the area’s economic revival.
 
For nearly four decades, MEDITECH has been a leading software vendor in the health care informatics industry, providing integrated software solutions to meet the needs of health care organizations worldwide. With more than 2,700 staff members across six facilities, MEDITECH serves numerous organizations including hospitals, home health organizations, ambulatory care centers, physicans’ offices and long-term care and behavioral health facilities. As MEDITECH continued to grow, it needed a facility that would not only accommodate new and future employees, but also provide an opportunity for existing employees to relocate closer to home. The four-story, 122,000-square-foot building, located in Fall River, Massachusetts includes hundreds of workstations, dozens of private offices, 28 conference rooms and eight training rooms.
 
Besides helping advance the economy of the Fall River area, MEDITECH wanted to create a building that would advance the way sustainable structures are created. To carry out the design, Boston-based Payette was selected as the project’s architect and worked to incorporate sustainable elements to the building that would capitalize on the natural landscape and scenic location of the site. To provide advanced energy performance and meet Massachusetts’ stringent thermal requirements, MEDITECH Southcoast features an advanced façade- a synergistic, seamless integration of products designed to provide advanced energy performance and indoor environmental quality. Using a collaborative approach, the advanced façade includes high-performance glass, thermal doors and windows, and motorized sunscreen systems that automatically respond to exterior solar conditions and are integrated into the versatile curtain wall.
 
Design Highlights

• The picturesque location of MEDITECH Southcoast, situated on the north side of South Wattuppa Pond, served as inspiration for the building’s design. The unique curving shape of the building mimics the shoreline, emphasizing the surrounding scenery. Extensive use of natural daylight throughout the building was a key green element in the design. The continuous glass wall on the south façade of the building not only maximizes views, but also allows controlled daylight to reach deep into the building, illuminating the open workstations and reducing dependency on electrical lighting. To help control daylight and increase occupant comfort, the glass wall features motorized shades installed between the mullions.

 
Challenges

• Thermal performance was paramount to the project. To address Massachusetts’ strict requirements, the specifications called for low U-values and enhanced thermal performance. A design choice needed to be made: either a new custom system would need to be created specifically for the project, or the designs could incorporate a strategic combination of existing products integrated into an advanced façade.
• Supporting the curtain wall posed a structural challenge. All four stories of curtain wall required suspension from the roof framing to accommodate a central atrium space.
• The building’s flyby bays (5’ wide x 15’ tall) cantilevered horizontally beyond the outside wall, making the wall look larger than the building behind it. Special anchoring was needed to address the design.
  

Solutions

• An advanced façade was created using a collaborative approach to achieve optimum results. Kawneer’s capability to combine internal expertise and a vast product line, coupled with the customer's regional fabrication/installation skills, helped optimize the fenestration solution to meet architect/owner specifications for a high-performance building.
  
  • Kawneer’s 1600 Wall System®1 curtain wall, outfitted with automatic solar-tracking motorized shades to provide maximized daylight and views while offering sunshading, was used in the creation of the advanced façade helping contribute to the overall indoor environmental quality of the building. Additional combinations of high-performance Kawneer thermal products, 7500 Wall® curtain wall, 1600 Wall System®1 curtain wall, 560 Insulclad® Thermal Entrances, 8225TL ISOLOCK® Windows and 2000T Terrace Doors reduce thermal transmittance and helps optimize energy throughout the facility.
  • To achieve Payette’s vision, glazing contractor Tower Glass, located in Woburn, Massachusetts, partnered with Ontario-based Erie Architectural Products to coordinate and complete the fabrication of the building’s advanced façade, integrating products to optimize performance while controlling installed costs.
• Supporting the curtain wall from the roof allowed wind-load supports to be minimized, enhancing views to the pond from the atrium.
• The flyby bays and adjoining wall that used 1600 Wall System®1 curtain wall utilized a combination of cantilevered horizontal steel supports and dead load anchors at the top of the curtain wall with wind load anchors below.
  

Featured Products

• Kawneer’s 1600 Wall System®1 curtain wall, 7500 Wall® curtain wall, 560 Insulclad® Thermal Entrances, 8225TL ISOLOCK® Windows and 2000T Terrace Doors.
   
   
  

Learn more about Kawneer’s focus on sustainability at Kawneergreen.com.

• PDF News Release - MEDITECH Southcoast
• PDF - MEDITECH Southcoast Project Profile

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