EEA Consulting Engineers: Waterfront Development Phase 1

Automation, controls; electrical, power; energy, sustainability; HVAC, mechanical; lighting; plumbing, piping; office building; and new construction

By EEA Consulting Engineers August 9, 2018

Engineering firm: EEA Consulting Engineers

2018 MEP Giants rank: 90

Project: Waterfront Development Phase 1

Location: Austin, TX, United States

Building type: Office building

Project type: New construction

Engineering services: Automation, controls; electrical, power; energy, sustainability; HVAC, mechanical; lighting; plumbing, piping

Project timeline: December 2015 to May 2018

MEP/FP budget: $1,153,981

Challenges

The MEP team was constrained by overall building height,which created a low floor-to-floor height design scenario.The remaining available space between the ceiling and the floor above was limited and made it more difficult to place the MEP equipment.Another challenging aspect of the limited ceiling space was that it required a lot of coordination between multiple disciplines during both design and construction.

Solutions

To resolve the equipment selection and design, there was a lot of coordination between MEP, architecture, and structural building information modelingelements.Through coordination on the space constraints, EEA Consulting Engineerschose a chilled beam HVAC design thatoccupied much less ceiling space and as an added benefit was very energy efficient. Using REVIT for clash detection with the other disciplines enabled engineersto verify that thedesign would work in the space allotted and would be able to be constructed.