Wellington Children’s Hospital

Silvester Clark were the seismic restraint engineers for the new Wellington Children’s Hospital, a five-storey base-isolated building. The seismic restraint systems were designed for Importance Level 4 (IL4) seismic demands so that the building would likely remain in operation post an IL4 SLS2 event.

This was an Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) contract, and we worked with the main contractor (McKee Fehl) to develop a practical seismic restraint approach for this services-intense building. Our scope was to design restraints for all services (MEPF), including items in plant rooms, as well as the suspended ceilings and partition walls. One of the key features of the design approach involved using cradle frames in congested areas, made from proprietary box sections. These were installed prior to the installation of services. The cradle frames were also used to restrain partition walls and ceilings. Away from the main corridors, where services became less congested, they were restrained individually using traditional brace trapeze systems.

This was the first hospital project in New Zealand where cradle frames were used to restrain multiple services.One of the reasons for the success of this project was the buy-in from the main contractor. When we proposed the idea of using cradle frames, they embraced it. The entire team (consultant, main contractor, and trades) worked collaboratively to achieve a New Zealand first that we are all proud of.