Boston Children’s Hospital, the number one pediatric hospital in the nation, is home to the world’s largest pediatric research enterprise. Not only is it the leading recipient of pediatric research funding from the National Institutes of Health, but it is also the primary pediatric teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School. The Hale Family Building at BCH is an 11-story, state-of-the-art facility that allows the hospital to provide enhanced and specialized care for patients and their families. One of the priorities of the project was larger, more efficient laboratory space, so the designers chose raised access floors with a field-applied SelecTech finish to increase the flexibility and accessibility of the lab space.
The state-of-the-art clinical lab features an open-floor concept to encourage efficiencies through design. Power, voice and data cabling routed under the raised floor plenum increases the flexibility of the space and futureproofs the design against unanticipated changes in technology or procedures. As the needs of the space change, the underfloor services can be rerouted to accommodate a new workspace configuration or to adapt to
new technology.
Another important feature of this project is the use of SelecTech’s BioLock floor finish. This is a field-applied finish that is installed over the raised access floor. A releasable seam sealer is applied between the finish tiles to create a liquid-tight seal, which is required in most lab environments. The seal can be removed as needed to access the underfloor plenum and can be easily reapplied to maintain the liquid-tight finish. The combination of
SelecTech’s BioLock finish and the raised access floor allows lab environments to get the best of both worlds: a liquid-tight floor with access to the underfloor services.
A facility like The Hale Family Building at BCH needs to be agile and able to adapt to new procedures and standards of care. The raised access floor with a SelecTech BioLock finish will increase the flexibility of the space while maintaining lab cleanliness and safety standards to create an ideal lab environment.