Project profile: Office building expansion

An addition to a customer training facility and employee office building included mechanical, electrical, and plumbing upgrades from exp.

By John A. Rizzo, PE, exp April 25, 2014

Project name: Learning Center Expansion

Project type: Addition to an existing building

Engineering Firm: exp

Building type: Office building; customer education center

Location: Verona, Wis.

Timeline: August 2010 – September 2011


Building details

This project was an addition to an existing customer training facility and employee office building.  The project included 2 floors of meeting rooms above a single floor of housing over 230 private offices.  Total project size was approximately 198,000 sq ft. Each private office received individual heating/cooling controls, occupancy sensors for lighting and variable air volume (VAV) operation reduction, and window monitors on all perimeter offices to disable mechanical supply to those rooms.  Fully integrated audio-visual (AV) controls were included in the training rooms to allow for interconnection of all lighting, projector operation, window shades and sky-fold room partitions.  Concourse lighting included fixtures designed by the lighting engineer to reflect and compliment concourse lighting in the existing portions of the building.

Project details

As the engineer of record on both this project, and the existing building, the engineering team was very familiar with the existing systems which allowed them to be instrumental in major revisions to the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) systems. This included the following:

Electrical System: Two existing pad mounted transformers were in the way of the building expansion.  An existing 1250 kW building generator was also going to be encompassed in the center of the building with the new expansion.  Therefore, phased revision occurred by first locating a medium-voltage generator remotely on the site, and transferring down to 480 V within the building, allowing the generator to be removed while keeping the building fully backed up. The space made available from the removal of the generator allowed a dual transformer unit substation to be added as a replacement for the pad mounted transformers. This allowed the necessary space to be used for the building’s construction. 

Mechanical: Four existing boilers providing hot water for perimeter radiation were removed and replaced as part of this project with high temperature multi-stack water-to-water heat pumps. Two 80,000 cfm Haakon custom rooftop units with economizers provide HVAC supply to the project. Three 200 hp geothermal pumps provided the means for connecting the building heating/cooling system to the vertical bore, closed loop, geothermal system. 

Plumbing: Relocated the domestic water supply due to the new building location with minimal downtime to keep building operational as close to 100% as possible.  Tied in emergency back up to the mechanical system in case of geothermal system failure. 

Fire Protection: Fully protected building. 

Lighting: High use of LED fixtures with a fully automated lighting control and dimming system.