Construction Data:
- Design Build Construction Budget: $40 Million
- Completed: December 2016
A rapidly expanding enrollment and demand for on-campus student housing initiated the University’s request for the design and construction of a new residence hall using design-build delivery. BBSAE teamed with The Opus Group to successfully respond to the selection process. The design-build team’s solution provides an 8-story high-rise dormitory.
A new central mechanical plant generating chilled and heating water is provided to serve Geoffroy Hall and the existing Buchanan Hall. The new plants are both of variable primary arrangement with variable- speed, magnetic bearing chillers, condensing boilers and variable speed pumps.
The existing air-cooled chiller, steam-to-hot-water heat exchangers and steam-fired water heaters in Buchanan were removed. New directed buried piping connects the Geoffroy Hall plant with the existing building. Plate-and frame heat exchangers in Buchanan provide for the transfer of energy between the Geoffroy Hall plants and the Buchanan chilled and heating water systems. New high-efficiency, gas-fired semi- instantaneous water heaters with storage tanks generate domestic hot-water for Buchanan. The mechanical space in Buchanan containing the heating plant equipment, fire pump and water entrance is very limited. Removal of the steam infrastructure allowed for installation of the new gas-fired water heaters, storage tanks and plate and frame heat exchangers, but extensive on-site field verification and a 3D Revit model were utilized to coordinate installation and ensure service clearances and walkways were maintained as much as possible.