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In 2010, our team—Meridian Health, Saphire + Albarran Architecture, and Kullman Industries—set out to design and build a new childcare facility on the campus of the Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, New Jersey.
The building was to be a freestanding structure for use by Meridian employees as a compliment to its newly built LEED Gold hospital. As Meridian had high aspirations to build a state-of-the-art sustainable facility and realize it in a short timeframe, we looked at the available options to get a project of substantive quality built and ultimately decided upon a design-build approach using modular construction.
Modular construction had a huge upside. It would save on construction time and, given that the structure would be built almost entirely off-site and to exacting specifications, it would produce near-zero construction waste, making it an especially green approach. But in terms of LEED, the project would test the waters of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) rating system. With no precedent to guide us, we were going green without a script.
Saphire + Albarran worked with The Sheward Partnership, the sustainability consultant for Meridian’s new hospital, to present the building’s special qualities to the USGBC.
