Inspira Medical Center in Vineland, New Jersey had a growing patient population and needed to expand. In the course of planning the project, the general contractor, Hunter Roberts Construction  Group, was aware of the capabilities of Jersey Panel—also located in Vineland—and brought them on board early for design-assist support. As a result, more than 30,000-square-feet of exterior walls were eventually added to the Acute Care building on the medical campus in under two weeks.

Meeting Design Intent

To fulfill the design intent, StoPanel Classic NExT ci was chosen for the cladding. The product is a prefabricated insulated exterior wall panel system that weighs almost 90 percent less than a precast panel of the same size. The lightweight prefabricated panels are both energy efficient and durable, incorporating the thermal control layer in the insulation and the air, water, and vapor control layers in a waterproofing and air barrier. By using the continuous insulation product with its patented drainage wedge, the team was able to match the design theme of the existing one-story building with the panels, all while offering a tremendous “speed to market” benefit. Especially, since the main exterior panel installation took place during an especially harsh winter.

Record Time

According to Executive Director of StoPanel Technology, Dominick Baruffi, accomplishing this same task using conventional construction would have easily taken four or five months. But he says the “delta” in this case was not just two weeks compared to five months. Due to a harsh winter and an even more extreme spring, a job that saw the panel installation begin and end in February, would not have even started until mid-March or April. Add another four to five months of conventional construction time to that, and the resulting delta was seven months.

“The cost savings was off the charts,” says Baruffi.

“The project’s budget and schedule advantages achieved by bringing Jersey Panel on board early and using the panels were instrumental in the success of the addition to Inspira Medical Center,” says Peter D’Antonio, director of business development for Hunter Roberts Construction Group. “The advanced technologies and practices used by the Sto Affiliate Program allowed both the engineering and design assist phase, along with the manufacturing, to proceed in a time frame most people in the business would find unbelievable.”

Climate Control

The panels were all built at the Jersey Panel manufacturing facility, under tight technology quality control standards. Essentially the entire building envelope for the two new floors was completed off-site, then shipped to the jobsite by flatbed truck, lifted into place with a crane, and then attached to the structural framing. Weather was not an issue because the exterior wall panels were built within Jersey Panel’s climate-controlled facility. The scope of the project included the overbuild construction of two floors, totaling 62,568-square-feet of interior space, atop an existing one-story outpatient facility. Both the second and third floor fit-outs added 36 new patient rooms (72 total) and support areas. The over-build itself was designed by Array Architects.

“We at Hunter Roberts are pleased to have shared in this partnership with Jersey Panel … and look forward to future opportunities where we can repeat this success,” says D’Antonio.