UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII CANCER CENTER

State-of-the-art research facility with innovative cooling technology

As one of only 69 National Cancer Institute-designated centres in the US, The University of Hawaii Cancer Center aims to be a world leader in eliminating cancer.

A New Building for a New Leader in Cancer Care

It plays an important role not only in providing access to life-saving treatment breakthroughs for the local population, but in attracting investment and talent into Hawaii. A new building was essential to its continuing success, because it was coming to the end of its lease, and the old facility was too small. The University of Hawaii decided to create a new world-class facility in the district of Kaka’ako, consolidating its programmes under one roof and providing accommodation for cancer biology, prevention and control, epidemiology studies, and clinical and translational research.

Engineering University of Hawaii Cancer Center

Working in collaboration with our local office in Hawaii, our specialist teams provided mechanical, electrical and plumbing support, lighting design and energy modelling to demonstrate energy savings beyond the baseline design, enabling the project to achieve LEED Gold certification.

Building features include an optimized envelope to minimize air-conditioning loads, high-performance lighting design to reduce shadows and maximize use of daylight, ultra-efficient plumbing fixtures, and the use of waste heat from the condenser system for temperature control. The laboratory neighbourhoods are designed to promote collaboration between researchers, as well as to reduce the number of air changes required, by separating offices from lab space. Cooling was a particular challenge, as the building sits on Honolulu’s hot, humid coastal plain, so we introduced innovative chilled beam technology as part of a low-energy HVAC system supplying fresh air at the correct temperature to the clinical and lab facilities.

The project was completed three months ahead of schedule and substantially under budget.