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Adventist HealthCare’s White Oak Medical Center in Montgomery County, Maryland, used four custom roof hatches to solve a problem that conventional side access could not: moving very large central-utility-plant equipment onto the roof and removing it years later. Each opening measured 9 feet by 22 feet, and the strategy was driven by the plant’s tight, irregular site and a slope that made side removal difficult.
The access problem at White Oak Medical Center
The roof hatches served the hospital’s central utility plant, not patient circulation or routine public entry. The plant was built as a separate structure on the White Oak Medical Center campus in Montgomery County, Maryland. The hospital project was reported as a $400 million healthcare facility on a 48-acre parcel with 180 patient rooms. Those figures come from The BILCO Company’s project article published by Building Design + Construction on January 27, 2020, rather than from an independent project audit.
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The utility plant occupied 16,000 square feet and had to fit a tight, unusually shaped footprint. A sloping site made the usual idea of bringing replacement machinery through a building wall or side opening much harder. The project team therefore treated roof access as part of the plant’s long-term equipment plan, rather than as a small maintenance convenience.
CallisonRTKL designed the plant with four large custom openings. BILCO supplied four hatches, each 9 feet wide by 22 feet long, along with standard hatches associated with ship-stair access. The large openings were intended to accommodate installation and eventual removal of equipment whose service life would end after the hospital opened.
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Why future replacement shaped the design
A central utility plant concentrates the mechanical and electrical systems that keep a healthcare campus operating. At White Oak, the reported inventory included generators, chillers, boilers, hot-water heaters, electrical panels and switchgear, plus a small office. Much of that equipment is too large or heavy to treat like ordinary building contents once it is installed.
Robb Macdonald, a CBG South sales representative, described the planning decision this way: “They considered the life span expectations of the generators and looked for a way to replace them down the road.” He also explained the site constraint: “The site’s slope presented a challenge to the traditional way of removing large equipment through the sides of the building, so rooftop access was the best solution.”
That is the important distinction in this project. The hatches were not selected simply to create a convenient route for technicians. Their dimensions were tied to a lifecycle question: how will the hospital remove a generator, chiller or other large item when it reaches the end of its service life, without dismantling a wall or disrupting the hospital itself?
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| Equipment or space | Quantity reported for the project | Why it matters to access planning |
|---|---|---|
| Emergency generators | Four | Large emergency-power units may require a planned route for future replacement. |
| Cogeneration generator | One | A separate generation system added another major item to the plant’s equipment envelope. |
| Chillers | Four | Cooling equipment must be considered when defining the largest removable load and route. |
| Boilers | Four | Boiler replacement can require openings larger than ordinary personnel hatches. |
| Hot-water heaters | Ten | The number of vessels increased the number of future replacement scenarios. |
| Electrical panels and switchgear | Present; quantity not stated | Electrical equipment has to be moved and serviced without compromising the plant’s operating systems. |
| Office | One small office | Shows that the plant included administrative space as well as utility equipment. |
The project article presents central utility plants as adaptable and expandable because equipment can be replaced or added without rebuilding the hospital. That is a general explanation attributed to the article, not a quantified industry performance claim. For this plant, the separate location also created room to keep hazardous mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems away from patient areas.
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What the four custom openings changed
A route that avoided the sloping sides
The roof provided a direct vertical route into the plant. With a 9-by-22-foot opening, the design could be sized around unusually large equipment rather than around a standard personnel doorway. The sources do not describe the lifting equipment, rigging method, temporary protection or exact replacement sequence used at White Oak, so those details should not be assumed. The documented point is that the openings were intentionally large enough to support future equipment movement.
Planning for the equipment envelope
For a project using the same idea, the relevant measurement is not only the equipment’s catalog width. Designers need the complete removal envelope: the unit, skids or frames, lifting points, rigging tolerance and any protective packaging or temporary supports. The White Oak dimensions show the scale of opening selected for this plant, but they do not establish a universal size for hospitals or other facilities.
Keeping the plant independent from patient operations
Ryan Dellinger, an architect for CallisonRTKL, said: “Locating all of the generators, chillers, electrical switchgear and hot water heaters separate from the hospital allows more future flexibility for the hospital and removes some of the more hazardous, mechanical, electrical and plumbing equipment from the hospital.” His comment links the access decision to the broader campus strategy: equipment replacement can be planned around the utility building instead of around occupied clinical space.
Reported features of the supplied hatches
The BILCO-authored case study identifies three functional features. First, compression spring operators were described as providing smooth, one-hand operation regardless of hatch size. Second, hold-open arms were used to lock the covers in the open position. The corroborating 2019 trade-publication case study calls these “automatic hold-open arms.” Third, the article describes corrosion-resistant materials.
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Those are manufacturer-reported product claims in a project article. They are not independent test results, and the sources do not establish a particular model, metal specification, insulation value, structural load rating, wind rating, code approval, price or current availability. A specification writer should obtain those items from current project documentation and the manufacturer before treating the hatches as suitable for a particular roof assembly.
“This is the largest roof hatch I’ve been associated with,” said Rick Brigham, who led the installation team for Cole Roofing. He added: “The BILCO hatches were the best choice for this job due to their ability to custom fabricate them to meet special size requirements.”
Brigham’s comments explain why a custom fabrication capability mattered here: the opening size was a project-specific response to equipment access, not a selection from an ordinary small-hatch schedule.
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| Item | Reported detail | Qualification |
|---|---|---|
| Facility | Adventist HealthCare White Oak Medical Center, Montgomery County, Maryland | Project case study |
| Utility plant size | 16,000 square feet | Published by The BILCO Company in 2020 |
| Custom roof hatches | Four, each 9 feet by 22 feet | Corroborated by a 2019 trade-publication case study |
| Hospital figures | $400 million facility, 48-acre parcel, 180 patient rooms | Project figures attributed to the 2020 BILCO article |
| Opening timing | Facility opened in August 2019 | The 2020 article describes the completed project; the 2019 case study said the doors would open that August |
| Supplier named in the case study | BILCO | Manufacturer-authored account; no independent owner evaluation was identified |
How to evaluate a roof-hatch strategy on another project
White Oak is a useful example of access planning, but its dimensions should not be copied without an equipment and site study. A design team considering large commercial roof hatches can work through these questions in order.
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1. Define the largest item that must leave
- List every generator, chiller, boiler, vessel, transformer, switchgear section and other item that may require replacement.
- Record the largest shipping and removal dimensions, weight, center of gravity and lifting points.
- Include skids, frames, rigging and the clearance needed to turn or lower the item.
2. Map every possible route
- Compare a roof route with side-wall openings, removable panels, loading docks and other temporary paths.
- Account for grades, retaining walls, adjacent buildings, traffic routes and the space needed for a crane or other lifting system.
- Check whether a side route would cross occupied hospital areas or require removal of finished construction.
3. Size the opening from the route, not the catalog
A standard personnel hatch may be appropriate for ship-stair access but unsuitable for equipment replacement. If the required opening is unusual, the project should document the custom dimensions and the reason for them. White Oak’s four 9-by-22-foot openings demonstrate that scale can be deliberate when the plant contains multiple large machines.
4. Coordinate the roof and structure
The case studies do not publish White Oak’s structural details, roof build-up or waterproofing method. On a new project, the architect, structural engineer, mechanical engineer and roofing contractor should coordinate curb geometry, reinforcement, drainage, flashing, membrane compatibility, insulation continuity and temporary protection during a lift. These are project requirements to verify, not specifications established by the Maryland case study.
5. Plan safe operation and hold-open behavior
Ask how the cover is opened, how it remains secured during loading, and how workers are protected around the opening. The reported spring operators and hold-open arms address operation and open-position control, but the sources do not state the complete fall-protection or site-safety system. Those controls must be designed and documented for the specific installation.
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6. Verify replacement assumptions with the owner
Equipment life expectancy, outage windows and the owner’s maintenance practices should drive the access plan. A hatch that can accept the initial installation but not the next-generation replacement does not solve the lifecycle problem that motivated the White Oak design.
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- Hard hat clip- attaches for easy access
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7. Confirm current technical information before procurement
The published case study does not provide a current model number, price or availability statement. Obtain a current submittal, product data, structural and weather-performance information, dimensions, finishes and warranty terms before specifying a hatch. An ordinary retail “commercial roof access hatch” should not be treated as a substitute for the custom 9-by-22-foot units described in this project.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What this case does—and does not—prove
The documented evidence supports a clear conclusion about this hospital: constrained geometry and a sloping site made rooftop equipment access more practical than relying on the plant’s sides, and four unusually large custom openings were incorporated so major equipment could be installed and eventually removed.
It does not establish that roof access is always better than side access, that a particular hatch design is universally preferred, or that the reported operating features meet a specific code or performance threshold. No independent testing, owner-side evaluation, comparative product study or industry benchmark is provided. Decisions on another project should therefore use the same evaluation axes—opening size, equipment route, site geometry, operating controls and roof integration—without assuming the Maryland dimensions or product claims apply unchanged.
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The 2019 trade-publication case study described the hatch count, dimensions, architect and contractor and said the doors would open in August 2019. The more detailed BILCO-authored article appeared on January 27, 2020, after the facility had opened the previous August. Together, they describe a completed 2019 project, not a current construction announcement.
The BILCO account is the most detailed published description of the installation, but it is written by the named hatch supplier. The 2019 account corroborates the principal dimensions and use without serving as an independent evaluation. Readers looking to specify a similar system should treat the project as a design example and request current engineering and product documentation for their own building.
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