MACC Fund Center project a breath of fresh air

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There was a big to-do list at the MACC Fund Center, which treats children suffering from cancer and blood disorders.

Chief among the priorities: Rerouting plumbing, running ductwork outside the building and putting HEPA filters in each room. Equally as important was the need to create a place where children with cancer and blood disorders and their worried families would be comfortable spending hours and days of their lives.

It all resulted in a game-changing project for the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin MACC Fund Center that includes the clinic and Northwestern Mutual Day Hospital.

“We were trying to create a place that was a little less stressful for the child and for their parents,” said Tim O’Rorke, MEP project manager and electrical engineer at Ring & DuChateau.

DuChateau is one of the lead firms on the $10 million project, which includes family-play and check-in areas and colored LED lights to encourage kids to come out of their rooms.

Admittedly, in the midst of reducing stress for others, the builders came under a bit of extra pressure themselves. There was the time, for instance, when they realized they had to reroute the plumbing for the nearly 23,000-square-foot, five-story building.

“It ended up being a bigger problem than we first anticipated because the water supplies, instead of being looped on the floor — where you go out with your hot and cold water and drop off to feed your various fixtures — it was done vertically from the fourth floor,” O’Rorke said.

To get the work done, crews shut down just a part of the water system each night, working on a couple of rooms at a time to avoid trouble for the floor below.

“It took a lot of coordination,” O’Rorke said.

But the biggest challenge came with the air-handling system.

The area was originally served with fan-coil units, which brought minimal air in from the outside. The new design called for an air-handling system, which incorporated far more external air.

“The issue was: Do you use the floor space to put in the shaft or use what Mother Nature gave you and run the ductwork outside? The decision was to not give up the floor space,” O’Rorke said.

The new system, along with the new HEPA filters for each room, meant cleaner and less recycled air for the immune-suppressed children who would be occupying the floor — another element organizers hoped would make children’s stay a bit easier.

It’s also part of the reason working on the unit was so rewarding.

“You know you’re helping the kids,” O’Rorke said.

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