Project Profile: One Vanderbilt

Engineering firm: Jaros, Baum & Bolles
2022 MEP Giants rank: 36
Project: One Vanderbilt
Location: New York, NY, United States
Building type: Office building
Project type: New construction
Engineering services: Automation, controls; commissioning, retro-commissioning; electrical, power; fire, life safety; HVAC, mechanical; plumbing, piping; information technology
Project timeline: August 2016 to December 2021
Commissioning services budget: $670,000

Exterior of One Vanderbilt (Photo by Max Touhey, Courtesy of SL Green)

Challenges

The commissioning process for a job of this magnitude was extremely complex due to the size of the building, the relationship to the future office and retail tenants, and the coordination among a myriad of public transportation options connecting to the tower. Anticipating the considerable task of controlling documentation on such a project, JB&B Field developed a very specific issues log by engaging our in-house database that allowed progress of forms, deficiencies, closeout, and other documents to be tracked by location, primary stakeholder, system type, etc., resulting in seamless reporting and smoother closeout at each phase of construction.

Early in 2021 the JB&B Field team coordinated a full-building pull-the-plug test. As the building was occupied at the time, this testing required a vast amount of coordination with nearly 50 people and took place overnight from Friday to Saturday. Additional integrated systems testing was successfully completed in the summer of 2021, again entailing coordination with commercial tenants, a highly popular restaurant and observation deck construction and/or operations, all active simultaneously. Despite these considerations and the aggressive closeout schedule, the team closed out 11 integrated systems over the course of two weeks.

Hot Water Plant (Photo by Max Touhey, Courtesy of SL Green)

Solutions

In an effort to kickstart Functional Performance Testing for the building, the team agreed to complete certain FPTs despite the unavailability of chilled or hot water by simulating conditions and manipulating set points. In addition, JB&B Field worked with the TAB Contractor on a process to certify the floor-by-floor air handling units although no downstream ductwork was installed in the tenant spaces. Several units required a second round of testing to fully evaluate system efficiency.

JB&B Field and the construction manager together decided on a preferred method of sharing project documentation for review and record via a cloud-based construction management tool. All completed Pre-Functional Performance Checklists (PFPCs), Start-Up forms, TAB checkouts, BMS point-to-point, and Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) reports were submitted to JB&B Field for review and acceptance prior to scheduling any FPTs. Progress was reviewed weekly and, by active management of documentation turnover, the operations team had access to a full history of all equipment in the building well before formal turnover.

JB&B Field is enormously proud not only to have worked on a New York City project of this magnitude and stature, but more importantly, is proud of the people involved on the project. They never stopped working even during the unprecedented conditions of the pandemic, confronted both emotional and physical hurdles, managed difficult coordination with tenants, and ultimately led one of the largest project teams we’ve ever worked with.

Chilled Water Plant (Photo by Max Touhey, Courtesy of SL Green)

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