Facility Performance Under Pressure: Supporting MUSC's Fast-Tracked Behavioral Care Pavilion

Client

The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC)

Location

Florence, SC

Challenge

State and city officials determined an efficient, long-lasting healthcare facility was urgently needed in the Pee Dee region in northeastern South Carolina to address a behavioral health crisis. The MUSC Health Jean and Hugh K. Leatherman Behavioral Care Pavilion was conceived as the solution: a 111,600-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility delivering triage, crisis stabilization, telehealth, outpatient, and inpatient care. Backed by $100 million in state funding and $5 million from the City of Florence, the project pursued a Green Globes certification, a nationally recognized sustainability program that evaluates the performance of healthcare buildings across energy efficiency, water use, indoor environmental quality, durability, and operations.

Building enclosure decisions carried an elevated risk for this project. The team needed to validate complex wall and roof assemblies under actual HVAC operating conditions and regional climate demands, while coordinating testing and quality control at precise milestones. Early design choices had the potential to drive cost, introduce long-term moisture risk, or disrupt the fast-tracked schedule. The owner required building enclosure expertise that could reduce risk, support sustainability objectives, and keep the project moving forward without unnecessary complexity.

Solution

Terracon served as the building enclosure commissioning provider (BECxP) under the owner’s representative selected by Stantec to verify the performance, durability, and sustainability of the pavilion’s building envelope systems. Our team provided building enclosure consulting throughout design and construction, focusing on walls, roofing, waterproofing, fenestration, and air- and moisture-control layers critical to healthcare environments.

During design, Terracon identified a proposed vapor barrier within the roof assembly that added cost and construction complexity without a clear functional benefit. To support an informed decision, Terracon performed advanced WUFI hygrothermal modeling to evaluate moisture behavior in real-world HVAC conditions. The analysis confirmed the vapor barrier was unnecessary for performance or durability. The system was removed, improving constructability while maintaining enclosure resilience and Green Globes compliance.

As construction advanced, building enclosure testing had not been assigned. To maintain momentum, Terracon acted quickly — providing testing services and leveraging industry relationships to connect the contractor with qualified third-party agents. Our team also supported the fast-paced construction timeline through proactive observations and real-time communication, enabling issues to be addressed in the field ahead of formal reports.

By combining technical precision with proactive problem-solving, the MUSC Health Jean and Hugh K. Leatherman Pavilion delivers more than a building — it provides a sustainable, innovative solution to a regional health crisis and sets a new standard for behavioral healthcare in South Carolina.

Results

Terracon’s building enclosure expertise directly supported the project’s performance, cost control, and schedule certainty. The elimination of the unnecessary vapor barrier, resulted in approximately $80,000 in cost savings and accelerated the construction schedule by two to three weeks — a significant advantage on a fast-tracked healthcare project.

Through collaborative problem-solving and performance-based analysis, the broader team successfully cost-engineered the project by approximately $20 million while topping out just 11 months after design kickoff.

The Pavilion opened in August 2025, meeting the client’s goals for performance, sustainability, and cost-effective solutions. The completed facility now serves as a regional benchmark for high-performance behavioral healthcare.

Terracon’s contributions were recognized with state and national American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) awards for innovation, collaboration, and engineering excellence that helped deliver a resilient building in support of an urgent community health need.

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