The Woodlands at Harvest Hill

Nature of Work: 66 units of new elderly housing on a hospital campus

Location: Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital, Lebanon, New Hampshire

This project won the Associated Builders and Contractors New Hampshire/Vermont Construction Excellence Merit Award.

This development marks the Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital as one of the Upper Valley’s leading providers of diverse healthcare services. The project has overall space of 167,230 square feet including an underground garage for residents that covers nearly 33,000 square feet.

The state-of-the-art independent living facility consists of 66 residential units ranging in size from 792 square feet to 2,179 square feet, distributed over four floors. Common areas include the dining room, great room, library, and reception area. Onsite amenities include an exercise room, a year-round swimming pool and Jacuzzi, a hair dressing salon, several activity rooms, a chapel-meditation room, a theater room, a small conference room and a wellness room. There is also a small apartment unit designated for guests of residents.

Project owner Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital (APD) selected Trumbull-Nelson to begin Pre-construction Services. The Pre-construction planning process was shelved for over a year during a period of marketing and pre-sales. With adequate deposits in hand and financing in place, the process resumed. 

With The Woodlands, APD expanded its mission as a resource that offers a broad range of medical needs for residents in Lebanon and beyond to address the rapidly growing market of senior citizens in search of state-of-the-art assisted living facility.

In terms of design elements, the building’s wall and floor systems were panelized to expedite construction. The floor system utilized rigid insulation and plywood sheathing at the building’s parking garage. The size of the building required a masonry wall for fire separation system, essentially splitting the building in two. 

Schedule challenges were primarily a result of a change in the State’s Department of Environmental Services (DES) utility installation requirements, delaying related activities by a year. The overall Project remained on schedule despite significant modifications to the sequence of construction.

Another schedule challenge involved the need for modifications to the project scope required by various permitting agencies. Collaborative team efforts created an environment where required changes were made in a timely fashion. 

Pre-planning strategies included such matters as analysis of incorporating a phased approach to construction and site access issues. To optimize efficiency, Trumbull-Nelson created four zones of construction, building from the facility’s southeast corner to its northwest corner. Utilizing this approach, workmen were finishing units on one end of the building while framing occurred on the opposite end. Regarding the site, access through the Hospital campus was restricted. The Team established a one-way traffic pattern through an adjacent residential neighborhood to avoid conflict with existing campus (Harvest Hill) residents and Hospital staff, visitors, and patients.

The Pre-planning/Pre-construction process involved analysis of various building types to optimize cost efficiencies. The sloping site presented several challenges. Substantial blasting was required as test borings didn’t reveal all areas of the existing ledge. A large retaining wall was needed to integrate the cuts and fills with building excavation while keeping drainage of the site under control.

One unusual issue that confronted Trumbull-Nelson was the need for an easement and a permit from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The Project is sited beneath the approach path for the east-west runway at the Lebanon Regional Airport. The FAA required that a light and flag be placed on top of the crane boom during hoisting operations, and that written notification be sent whenever working above a certain elevation.

On The Woodlands, Trumbull-Nelson worked hand-in-hand with New Hampshire Energy Star Program Consultants to deliver a building that exceeded all initial expectations for energy efficiency. The Project received the maximum Energy Star credit and an extremely good Home Energy Rating System (HERS) score, reflecting tightness of the overall building.

Due to Owner financial constraints resulting from fewer initial sales, the start of construction was delayed, and the building schedule spanned two winter seasons. Although this was not overly disruptive to construction, it required a strict focus on budget criteria. Throughout the Project, the schedule remained mainly intact, in spite of the fact that unanticipated DES regulations related to utilities created the need to modify the sequence of construction. The Project experienced no labor disruptions or issues.

In general, construction challenges were limited in number and scope, and were addressed by a collaborative Team of professionals committed to achieving Project success.