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Green With California Gov. Jerry Brown's recent water re- striction mandate and anticipated rations from water utilities, healthcare facilities are under pressure to address conserva- tion. Fortunately for the rising UC San Diego Jacobs Medical Center, the environmentally conscious features of its new central utility plant are already addressing this urgency, reusing and recycling condensate a full seven months prior to the open- ing of the Jacobs Medical Center. Already seamlessly handling all utilities at the expanding cam- pus, the CUP is surprisingly not an unsightly concrete box, but rather, Sustainability highlighted throughout central utility plant at UC San Diego Green Threads WATER EFFICIENCY a carefully designed, curvilinear, eco-conscious facility with sweep- ing curves, fl oor-to-ceiling glass and eco colors simultaneously blending with the environment. The design-assist team of Kitchell and CannonDesign completed the CUP (LEED Silver certifi cation pending) last summer, and the facility began recycling and reusing conden- sate at the beginning of March — long before the bed tower opening in 2016. Traditionally, condensate is drained during construction and not recov- ered until closer to the end of the project when steam loads are greater. The steam condensate return system designed for the CUP goes back to an active condensate re- turn storage and pumping system for redeployment to other energy consumption activities. The new plant steam generation system feeds multiple buildings (new and existing), coming online at dif er- ent times. The condensate return system and the associated piping system were designed to operate at full steam load when all buildings are online and returning condensate. The amount of condensate being returned from an initial phase (exist- ing hospital) and partial load was not originally planned to be treated and re-used. The project team recognized that by adding valves, introducing ongoing chemical treatment and add- ing oxygen scavengers at key locations in the condensate return system, a plan could be implemented to return condensate during all phases of the steam startup through functional testing of the new equipment (fi nal phase), resulting in a savings of up to 4 million gallons of softened water. Strategically green From an energy standpoint, the build- ing is well insulated with a strategi- cally designed window pattern on Jacobs Medical Center San Diego, Calif. PROJECT: Central Utility Plan ONLINE: 2014 ARCHITECT: Kitchell & Cannon- Design __ The new central utility plant at UC San Diego Jacobs Medical Center includes many environmentally conscious features. It is pending LEED Silver certifi cation. BY BRANDON POTTS news & practices MCDM AG.COM | M AY/ J U N E 2015 | Medical Construction & Design 57