Detroit Medical Center Harper-Hutzel Hospital

The patient rooms on the top level of Harper-Hutzel Hospital have a large penthouse mechanical and electrical room overhead.

Patient comfort suffered due to the transmitted noise when the three outdated generators were tested or run for emergency power. The hospital decided to replace the gensets with modern units and made noise isolation a top priority.

With such an acoustically sensitive adjacency, Soundscape Engineering designed a floating floor system over the entire generator room to provide robust sound blocking construction. Floor elevation issues had to be addressed as rooftop area was being annexed into the penthouse space. A solution was found that accommodated the two different floor heights while not compromising the acoustical performance of the floating floor. Additionally, the genset was placed on high efficiency vibration isolators to reduce the potential for structure-borne noise.