November 21, 2012

Testimony on the rental community that developer AvalonBay is contracted to build at the former site of the University Medical Center continued on November 15 at a meeting of the Regional Planning Board. Postponements caused by Superstorm Sandy and a glitch in the recording equipment at the previous meeting, requiring some rehashing of testimony, slowed down the proceedings.

And time is of the essence. The Board has until December 15 to rule on the application, a deadline that AvalonBay senior vice president Ron Ladell has said will not be extended. Meetings on December 6, 10, and 13 will be devoted to further discussion of the proposed development, the Board decided at the packed gathering last week.

Many residents have expressed concerns about the environmental impact and design standards of the 280-unit development [see related stories on this page]. As described by Mr. Ladell and architect Jonathan Metz of the firm Perkins Eastman, the four-to-five story building is designed to have two courtyards, one of which is open to the public and the other which would be closed off for security reasons.

“We looked at the building as sitting in a garden,” said Mr. Metz. “One of our aims was to restore green space, to make the building interact with green space.”

Critics of the plan have said that it creates a gated community. At the previous meeting, Planner Marvin Reed said that original discussions about the site with the hospital administration provided for at least two parks to be part of the development. Mr. Ladell cited safety issues with the pool that is part of the design as a reason for making the second park private. “This is the only area the public isn’t allowed into,” he said.

Mr. Reed reiterated his point. “We had a lot of discussion about open space, where residents and neighbors would intermingle,” he said. After asking the architect to show the dimensions of the public courtyard — 96 by 110 feet — he said, “There seems to be a discrepancy between my imagination and the ordinance. I thought there would be more open space. Somehow what we thought was going to happen didn’t get codified.”

Asked by Planning Board vice-chair Gail Ullman how this development differs from others that AvalonBay has built across the country, Mr. Ladell said none have courtyards and this much open space. He added that the company has not previously had an opportunity to purchase a site with an existing parking garage, which this one has.

Mr. Metz described the apartment building as 48 feet at its highest point on one side, and 32.5 feet high on the other. “In every category of the bulk zone regulations, it exceeds or complies,” he said.

Princeton Citizens for Sustainable Neighborhoods (PCSN), which has its own attorney and environmental consultant, has many questions and concerns about the project and AvalonBay’s resistance to hiring an independent environmental consultant.

“AvalonBay has not followed its own consultant’s recommendation for a subsurface investigation of sewer discharges, including those from the old septic system, and PCSN strongly believes that this testing should be done,” said PCSN member Alexi Assmus in an email this week. “The only soil and groundwater testing that Avalon has performed is adjacent to the five underground tanks.”


May 9, 2012

The new University Medical Center at Princeton in Plainsboro is only three miles from its original home on Witherspoon Street. But with its 21st century technology, sustainable green design, and light-filled, single-patient rooms complete with interactive television systems on 42-inch screens, the 636,000-square-foot complex seems a world away.

May 22 is the official opening day for the new hospital. At a preview this Saturday, May 12 from noon to 6 p.m., the public will get a chance to stroll the art-filled hallways, watch the colors of the Chapel of Light shift throughout the day as the sun crosses the sky, and see how advanced imaging makes for faster diagnosis during surgery. They can inspect the doubled-in-size emergency care center, fitted out with a six-bed unit for those with behavioral health issues. They can dine in the self-serve restaurant, which Princeton Healthcare System President and CEO Barry Rabner doesn’t like to call a cafeteria.

“We even have a pizza oven,” Mr. Rabner said last week during one of the countless tours he has led of the new facility in the past few months. “It won’t be Conte’s, but it’ll be good.”

Since signing on a decade ago, Mr. Rabner has engineered the $523 million hospital project from the design stage through construction. Workers were completing a few punch-list items last Friday as Mr. Rabner welcomed visitors to the atrium, which is lit from huge windows with horizontal shades that modify the solar heat. Sustainability was clearly a driving force in the creation of the hospital, which follows the U.S. Green Building Council guidelines for the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design [LEED] standard.

“There is a huge difference between this and the old hospital, which was built 93 years ago and added onto over time,” Mr. Rabner said. “We have all new technology, which will help us deliver better care and reduce our energy use by at least 25 percent, and our carbon footprint by even more.”

All of the patient care areas have 100 percent circulated fresh air. There is a chilled water thermal energy storage system, and water saving fixtures. Photovoltaic panels will be installed in the northeast parking lot. Indigenous landscape materials were used in construction, and the building was sited to maximize natural lights.

The 231 patient rooms, developed after a study that included input from patients and the public, are canted slightly toward large windows. The rooms are divided into three zones to accommodate the nurse, the patient, and family members. A foldout couch is there for overnight guests. A hands-free sink is designed to cut down on the spread of infection. Patients can check their email, watch movies, play video games, and get information on the television screens. Glass-paneled doors shut out noise while allowing staff to keep an eye on patients. The beds can even weigh their occupants.

Different colored portals denote different departments of the hospital. All of the cancer treatment will now be in one location. Radiation will be administered via a state-of-the-art system, with views of nature visible on ceiling panels above. There is double the capacity for infusion treatments such as chemotherapy, with chairs complete with warmers and massagers oriented toward an outdoor “healing garden.”

Mr. Rabner is clearly proud of the Chapel of Light, which was designed by architect Robert Hillier [a Town Topics shareholder] and Frances Fox. “We tried to create a space everyone would be comfortable with,” he said, pointing toward the beaded curtain that represents scripture from the Hebrew bible, the New Testament, and the Koran. There is also a marker in the chapel that points to Mecca. “Spirituality plays a huge role in healing for many people, so it’s our job to give them what they need to recover,” Mr. Rabner said. “I’ve started to think about the chapel the way I think about the art. It’s so important to healing.”

Volume in the medical center’s clinic has increased by 45 percent in the past five years, and it is expected to grow even more, Mr. Rabner said. The new Bristol-Myers Squibb Community Heath Center has 21 exam rooms as opposed to 16 in the current hospital. Uninsured and under-insured patients will be treated at the new clinic by many of the same doctors who treat the other patients, he added.

Dr. Jack Heim, the chairman of the Department of Surgery, demonstrated how video conferencing makes it possible for specialists to remotely connect with a surgical team in the operating room. “This allows us to be the operating room of the future,” he said. “Surgery is still the same. But now we can take advantage of technologies that let us offer any kind of surgery in a minimally invasive way. It decreases mistakes and time in the O.R.”

The hospital’s opening marks the first stage of what is planned to be a health campus on 171 acres. When fully built the campus will include a nursing home, age-restricted housing, a research building, a day care center, and other facilities. Merwick Rehabilitation Center is already located on the property.

The hospital used $50 million in savings to bolster the $147 million raised in a capital campaign, along with the money from the sale of the old hospital building. Approval is in place to add two additional floors to the building if needed. The hospital is seeking approval for a helicopter pad, to be located on an 11-acre patch of the property.

About 70 full-time employees have been hired to add to existing staff. Mr. Rabner said more may be hired in the future. “But we want to live in the building first,” he said, “and see how the efficiency of the new technology works. We want to be convinced it is as good as it’s supposed to be.”

Mr. Rabner estimates he has done 350 tours of the hospital and spoken at numerous senior centers, churches, and elsewhere introducing the new site. “We have invested nine years in designing what we think is going to be one of the most sophisticated hospitals in the country,” he said. “We’re ready to go.”