An American publicly owned investment firm located in Baltimore, MD was in need of engineering and design services for their Buildings renovations. Specifically, TAI provided the mechanical, electrical and structural engineering design for the complete renovation of both buildings, which combined was approximately 218,000SF in total. Between the two buildings, sixteen (16) existing air handling units were replaced with eight (8) new efficiency units–four (4) 90-ton high efficiency, two (2) 105-ton high efficiency, and two (2) 70-ton efficiency units. Approximately, three-hundred & eighty (380) new fan-powered terminal units were replaced, and carefully coordinated to ensure that the spaces were quiet.
For the first building, TAI provided design for 90 ton of cooling (N+1) for critical rooms and A/V closets utilizing modular air-cooled chillers. Critical loads included a Network Distribution Center that included approximately 30-racks, a Network Lab, and 9 IDF rooms. Computer room air conditioning units with hot aisle / cold aisle separations were utilized for IDF rooms. Special design credenzas were used for cooling A/V equipment with fan-coil units. The systems were designed so that there was minimal downtime during the renovation.
For the other building, an operations center required 24/7 operation, and the air handling units were designed so that smaller unit could operate at part load. Nine (9) IDF rooms and A/V closets were provided with chilled water fan-coil units utilizing chilled water from the adjacent building.
This project obtained LEED Silver. Lastly, the project team utilized the highly collaborative Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) method which posed to be very successful and saved nearly $1.5 M in costs.