Partnered with Schwarz-Hanson Architects in 2007, our engineers designed a complete remodel of mechanical and plumbing systems in this 24-story building, in conjunction with a new parking garage and data center. The biggest challenge of this project? Working around the ongoing office operations and allowing the building to stay occupied throughout renovations. The result was a historic office building fully restored to its original design, with updated and improved MEP systems, and a 2013 Design Award from the Texas Society of Architects.
The existing mechanical and plumbing systems were removed, and the existing building structure was modified as needed to support the new space loading to include a new central plant. The building controls system was designed to meet the Owner’s need for detailed trending and scheduling and remote access. Life safety systems consisted of stair pressurization fans for each of the stairwells throughout the building.
BHB also provided services for the addition of an approximately 10,000 square-foot data center. The data center would support the client’s multiple offices and would therefore be required to have redundancies designed into the critical systems. The data center was designed to fit within the existing structure and space limitations of the existing building. A new 500 kW UPS was added, and eight new computer room air conditioning units were added to accommodate the approximate cooling load of 120 tons. The utilities were designed such that there are redundancies in power and air conditioning. If the emergency generator fails, there is even an emergency shutdown sequence designed in to allow critical systems to operate as long as possible while an emergency shutdown is performed.
This week, city council voted unanimously to approve the conversion of this almost century old building into a hotel; the sale of the property to Development Service Group is expected to be finalized this month.
