SOUND-REDUCING DRYWALL CASE STUDY

Photo courtesy of PABCO Gypsum

Project: California Pacific Medical Center
Location: San Francisco
Architect: SmithGroup
General Contractor: HerreroBoldt Partners

The Project: The 12-story, 274-bed California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) Van Ness Campus occupies an entire city block in a busy part of San Francisco. Designed as a ‘hospital within a hospital,’ it follows a health-care system-wide strategic master plan developed by Sutter Health and architects from the SmithGroup. This building unites two of CPMC’s existing urban campuses into a focused, citywide hub with two hospitals offering adult acute care and women’s and children’s health care.

The forward-thinking design program all but eliminates departmental boundaries, both functional and physical, and instead focuses on the point of service, thus improving the workflow and productivity of the whole system. The most significant application of this strategy was the creation of an innovative, integrated design that functions as a combined surgery, interventional imaging, cardiac catheterization, and special procedures floor, all wrapped around a singular post-anesthesia care unit (PACU) and prep/level 2 recovery operation.

The Challenge: Hospitals in general can be noisy. Research has proven that a quiet hospital environment improves patient healing and medical staff satisfaction. The noise from equipment, patient intake and discharge areas, nursing stations, and common areas plus the regulatory requirements for patient privacy makes having rooms designed to mitigate sound transmission a critical component of design. The stakeholders (design, construction, owners, etc.) for this project sought to create a cost-effective medical facility that also meets the noise requirements of the hospital. In addition, the team also needed to address mold concerns. Breathing mold-contaminated air can cause severe health effects for hospital patients, personnel, and visitors. Because the campus buildings are equipped with HVAC units and plumbing running through ceilings, there is an increased risk for mold growth.

The Design Solution: The integrated design team looked at a variety of different products that could not only perform well for the primary purpose but also provide acoustical and mold control. Sound-reducing drywall was recommended for the project by acoustical consultants and received a thorough acoustical analysis from them. The team then found acceptable alternative details using the sound-reducing drywall that met or exceeded the sound-isolating industry standards for STC ratings—all while using less gypsum board material overall.

To address the mold concerns, sound-reducing drywall with integrated mold resistance was used to treat areas above ceiling height. In places where mold was not a major concern, standard sound-reducing panels were installed to reduce costs while maintaining STC performance.

Matthew Boersma of the construction firm HerreroBoldt Partners says, “After completing our analysis, it was clear that sound-reducing drywall would be the best solution to achieve the required STC performance, at the lowest cost, for the project. Additionally, using standard-thickness drywall standardized the wall dimension and reduced variability for other in-wall systems like door frames and receptacle outlets.”

The Results: With proper acoustics being one of the primary factors, the California Pacific Medical Center aims for LEED certification, with the medical office building set to achieve LEED Silver status. This will be one of the largest LEED-certified hospital campuses in the world and only the fourth LEED-certified hospital in California.