Barely a year after its groundbreaking and the new John C. Murphy Health Center is up and running at the new site of the St. Louis County Health Department’s administrative offices, now located at 6121 North Hanley Road in Berkeley, Mo.
The health center began seeing patients on August 6 and the health department moved in over the last few weeks. The two-story 93,455 square foot structure is modern, spacious, bathed in natural light with “green” efficiency and technology.
“Our state-of-the-art, ‘green’ facility will allow the health department to take advantage of the newest environmentally-friendly technology to reduce our operating costs while we continue to serve the county’s public health needs,” Dr. Delores Gunn, health department director said at the Aug. 3 ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Included in the green technologies are Solatubes that allow daylight to penetrate deep into the building – reducing the need for artificial lighting; high-efficiency rooftop heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment; light colored pavement and roof materials to absorb less heat from the sun; local and recycled materials; low VOC (volatile organic chemicals emission) products to improve indoor air quality; water-efficient landscaping; and electric car chargers. And all construction waste from the old health center was processed by a facility to remove recyclable and reusable materials. The department will seek Silver Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED certification.
The new County Health campus replaces the old headquarters formerly located in Clayton, Mo. The vital records office is located on corner of the first floor. Murphy Health Center takes up the opposite side of the floor, with women’s health, pediatrics, dental, WIC, nutrition, X-ray and lab. Rounding out the first floor are Health Education, three community classrooms; a larger community room and storage. The Chest Clinic, also on the first floor, has a separate entrance on the west side of the building.
“Tuberculosis is an extremely contagious disease, so this has been specially designed,” said spokesman Craig Lefebvre. “It has a negative pressure system and its own ventilation system so that air does not circulate between the rest of the building and there.”
The second floor houses administrative offices, the Environmental Laboratory and Communicable Disease Control Services. The Chest Clinic was set to open late last week and opening of the environmental lab is several weeks away as ordered equipment arrives.
“This new facility represents many great things for St. Louis County,” said County Executive Charlie Dooley. “It’s a modern, state-of-the-art approach to our public health efforts.”
“By having so many different services under the same roof, county residents will finally have a one-stop shop for many of their public health needs,” Gunn added.
It cost approximately $20.9 million to build, financed in part by federal stimulus dollars – Build America Bonds which come from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The building was completed ahead of schedule by the Clayco/Legacy Joint venture.
“Building this new Health Campus was not only good for public health, but for the local economy as well. Literally hundreds of construction jobs were created by this project,” Gunn said.
Department telephone numbers remain the same for the most part following the move. The main number for John C. Murphy Health Center has changed to 314-615-0500 and the appointment line is 314-615-0560.
