Kravis Center at Claremont McKenna College

Project name: Kravis Center at Claremont McKenna College

Location: Claremont, Calif.

Firm name: IBE Consulting Engineers 

Project type, building type: New construction, school (college, university)

Project duration: 3 years

Project completion date: Jan. 11, 2007

Project budget for mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection engineering only: $15.5 million

Engineering challenges

The building has a gross area of 82,000 sq ft and includes a basement with a parking garage and four levels above grade. The challenge was providing a flexible solution for all the program elements, including a server room, classrooms, offices, support spaces, and circulation areas.

Solutions

Offices are provided with active beams in the overhead plenum to each space. One hundred percent outside primary air is supplied from air handling units located in the basement. Classrooms are provided with a hybrid air-radiant system combining overhead air distribution with radiant panels. There are two air-handling units for the hybrid system located in the basement. The radiant system provides both heating and cooling. There is a dedicated 100% outside air distribution for the spaces with radiant ceilings. The other spaces have demand-controlled ventilation. Additionally, we employed several tactics to increase the building’s performance and to exceed Title 24 minimum standards by 37.9 percent and ASHRAE 90.1 by 46%: high-performance lighting systems in classrooms, seminar rooms, meeting rooms, and offices, with occupancy sensors and daylight harvesting sensors; high-performance glazing; high-efficiency frictionless chillers; wall insulation increased to R-19 and roof insulation increased to R-30; and daylight harvesting sensors.

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