IMEG provided mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire protection engineering design services for the Lexington Medical Center 545,000-sf tower addition, 122,000-sf renovation, and new two-story mechanical room. The new 10-story tower includes eight ORs, 250 inpatient beds, expanded surgical recovery area, women’s services, and public spaces and atrium that open to the hospital and clarify wayfinding. A new parking deck and central energy plant, directly adjacent to the addition, were part of the project. As part of the expansion, a kitchen, servery, tray service area, and dishwashing areas were added. The existing cafe was also renovated to expand dining space.

IMEG designed a new central energy plant building with 110 PPH of steam boiler capacity and 11,000-tons of chilled water capacity. The plant includes 6,000 kw of emergency generators for the campus, expandable to 14,000 kw, along with a fuel oil system sized to handle both the generators and boilers. The central energy building serves both the existing and new hospital addition. The generator plant operates at medium voltage and is part of the central energy building, providing emergency power to all portions of the facility, including the data center.

IMEG also developed a migration plan to bring existing equipment into the new plant as the boilers, chillers and generators fail with age. The tower includes 14 new air handling unit systems installed on interstitial mechanical floors.

IMEG’s fire protection system design included a new fire command center and fire alarm system for the tower, with monitoring and connections for the fire pump, stairwell pressurization, A/V devices, and detection/initiation circuits. The tower’s fire protection system connects to Lexington Medical Center’s existing Notifier Fire alarm system.

Other system designs included copper devices in patient rooms to reduce possible bacterial infection, and modular ceiling diffuser system incorporating HEPA filtered air, using a low turbulence, laminar flow, reducing contaminants and providing higher quality air for faster recovery.

The project was completed in phases, allowing connection areas to be renovated while new construction commenced without interference with an operating hospital.

Since the original 2019 tower expansion, IMEG has provided mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection, and technology engineering design services for additional areas of the hospital including a hybrid OR, cath lab addition and cath holding renovation, an arc flash study for the entire campus, and a new gift shop.