Johns Hopkins Hospital Cooling Tower

The North Plant at Johns Hopkins Medical Campus resides adjacent to the Science + Technology Park, which occupies 88 acres of downtown Baltimore used for medical schooling, doctors’ offices, laboratories, office space, and retail space. The North Plant is converted from a coal plant aging close to 100 years. The transformation took place for Johns Hopkins Medical Campus in the 1960’s.

Since then, the building has been under steady renovation, keeping up with the everchanging technical setting. Since Johns Hopkins took over the retired coal plant, the building has constantly been upgraded and remodeled. Recently, the cooling towers on the roof were in need of replacement.

The cooling tower is in four phases, which allowed the campus to maintain proper temperature while under construction. The construction included over 400 tons of galvanized steel. Much of the 400 tons was structural, but stairs and handrail were also included.

The four phases were completed in roughly 18 months. The fabricator and general contractor stated that hot-dip galvanizing was not the original specified coating, and instead the coating was to be a paint system. They advised against paint, due to the coating durability and life-cycle cost that hot-dip galvanizing offers, and have been happy with the outcome of the erected galvanized structure.