Architect: New hospital ready for fire, quakes

July 12. 2005

DAWN DE BUSK\Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU -- A large earthquake jolts Southcentral with enough force to crack highways. A wildfire rages near the Glenn and Parks highways' interchange; the smoke chokes motorists while its flames threaten buildings. March 2006 greets the Valley with 120-mile gusts and blowing snowdrifts.

Is the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, which opens sometime around February 2006, capable of withstanding devastation or unexpected crises, while protecting its occupants, many of whom might not be able to evacuate themselves?

Architect Rod Booze, of Ascension Group Architects in Texas, said he has total confidence the building has been designed to stand strong against earthquakes, gale-force winds and breakouts of fire, even within the structure.

Booze traveled to the Valley recently to check the progress of the 74-bed hospital he helped design.

During a phone interview, Booze said building codes regarding earthquakes have become considerably more strict in the past few years.

Those codes require an architect to use formulas based on horizontal acceleration and soil makeup and importance factors.

A hospital ranks high on the list of importance factors, Booze said.

There are two strategies to making a building safer during earthquakes.

One frequently used in Japan where many structures' foundations sit on rollers, allows the building to move with the quake.

The other approach is to create a building that resists the motion of the earth.

"We have a huge mat foundation that supports a giant, rigid concrete diaphragm. We've made the building very, very rigid," he said. "Once you've dealt with the forces of an earthquake, you've designed a building that'll stand up to wind."

He said the roof will be able to remain intact despite an 120-mph uplift.

However, the roof wasn't designed with roof-top evacuations in mind.

The helicopter pad sits adjacent to the emergency room on the ground level, he said.

The way the hospital's floor plans work, all the able-bodied patients would be evacuated if the building catches fire.

Those who are unable to walk or be moved would be assisted from safe zone to safe zone while firefighting personnel battle the flames.

A safe zone is an area within the building protected by one-hour, fire-resistant material on all four sides, with independent air systems created to remain operational during such a crisis. The 25 safe zones vary in size, with the largest one having a capacity of 220 people, Booze said.

The safe zones, or smoke-free zones, are designed for a building-based fire, he said.

If there were a fire outside the building, even if the building were in danger, people on machines or immobilized patients wouldn't be moved out of the hospital.

"Anytime you have a hospital, it can't be evacuated entirely," Booze said.

He explained the hospital would need to keep operating for the sake of potential victims of a natural or man-made disaster. During such a crisis, people also would go to the hospital to search for missing loved ones.

Booze dismisses claims that the water supply for the upcoming medical center is inadequate.

"There was never, never any problem with not having enough water. We have two separate wells. Aquifers provide potable water while additional water would feed a sprinkler system to fight fires," he said.

While plans for the hospital's design take into account some of the natural elements that could pummel Alaska, Booze created an exterior to complement the landscape.

"The most significant issue was to get natural light into the building and into the patients' rooms.

It has a circulation spine that follows from stem to stern, a continuous wall of glass that spans 350 feet for natural lighting," he said.

"Everywhere you see plywood now, you'll see windows," when it's done, according to Elizabeth Ripley, the hospital's spokeswoman.

Other aesthetics include stone details, dispersed lighting and exposed steel.

"We used color strategies to make the building compatible with the rustic look," he said. "It's just a gorgeous, great site, with a great Valley."

Contact reporter Dawn De Busk at 352-2252 or at dawn.debusk@frontiersman.com.