The Blood Connection--Headquarters Facility
Piedmont, SC
Founded in 1979, The Blood Connection is the largest non-profit, community blood center in Upstate South Carolina. It provides 100% of the volunteer blood supply to hospitals in six counties in South Carolina – Greenville, Greenwood, Pickens, Oconee, Laurens and Newberry – as well as Stephens County in Georgia.
When The Blood Connection decided to build a new headquarters, it chose a site in The Matrix Business & Technology Park in southern Greenville County. Britt, Peters and Associates provided structural engineering services for the two-story, 47,600-square foot facility which is a steel-frame system with bar joists. One challenge for the Britt, Peters team came with the inclusion of a roof terrace. Accommodating the employee break area required that part of the roof structure be designed for higher loads.
In addition to administrative offices, The Blood Connection’s $6 million headquarters facility houses training centers, call centers, laboratories and a refrigerated area for blood storage. The back entrance, which serves as a drop-off point for The Blood Connection’s mobile-unit buses, is specially designed to accommodate daily blood-donation deliveries.
The Blood Connection – through four centers in Upstate South Carolina – has an average of five blood drives per day, collecting more than 85,000 blood units each year. The organization serves as the connection between volunteer blood donors, hospitals, and patients needing life-saving transfusions. The Blood Connection is licensed and regulated by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
