Project Category: Municipal/State

City and County of Denver – Touchless Fixtures

Looking to improve health and safety in their municipal buildings, the City and County of Denver hired 360 Engineering and their sub-consultant team to provide MEP engineering services for bid documents and cost estimates to install directly powered touchless fixtures, including toilets and urinals, restroom, and breakrooms sinks. The five public facilities were Arie P. Taylor Municipal Center, Elections Division, Minoru Yasui Building, Richard T. Castro Human Services Building, and the Wellington E. Webb Building.

To address a quick timeline, 360 Engineering’s team began immediately with a survey of the existing fixtures in each of the five buildings. The team then created a systematic action plan based on floor plans to determine the fixtures’ locations, categorizing areas into similar spaces (i.e., core restrooms, gender-neutral restrooms, break rooms, etc.). The site survey observed and documented the fixtures in a typical space, then moved onto the other similar areas, noting any fixture discrepancies. The team optimized fieldwork efficiency by focusing survey efforts on identifying the “outliers.”

360 Engineering delivered individual drawing and full book specification packages for each building, designating each unique fixture type and location and the appropriate replacement components for each fixture.

 

Read about The Future of Office Space, including additional safety measures tenants may be seeking post-pandemic.

Denver Botanic Gardens Freyer-Newman Center

The final step in the Denver Botanic Gardens four-phase master plan, the 123,000-square-foot Freyer-Newman Center, holds classrooms, four gallery spaces, an expanded library, improved laboratories, 277-seat auditorium, a more accessible herbarium, and two levels of underground parking. Designed with LEED Gold standards, this new Center for Science, Art, and Education (CSAE) plays an essential role in the community’s access to the gardens’ arts and education programs.

Led by Davis Partnership Architects, 360 Engineering provided plumbing engineering consulting and design services for the project and fire protection engineering for the underground parking garage. The CSAE Building has two laboratory spaces for General Tissue Culture and Ecology. 360 Engineering designed and specified laboratory accessories and utilities for experimentation on the laboratory benches and in hoods. The laboratory systems included a dedicated air compressor, vacuum, deionized water system, and an emergency shower.

The project scope included upgrades at the historic Boettcher Memorial Center, which presented a need for creative design solutions. The Boettcher building is a protected historic site with a unique ceiling and roof structure. The engineers used the existing architectural aesthetics, which also presented some challenges for maintaining their position and purpose while still providing the needed utilities to the site. There was on-site problem solving for routing around and maintaining the integrity of existing conditions and structure.

2021 Mayor’s Design Award Winner

North Table Mountain – Water Treatment Plant Expansion

The North Table Mountain Water Treatment Plant expansion includes a brand-new ground-up Administrative Building and capacity expansion for the water filter treatment facility. The new Administrative Building has a unique energy savings sequence for the heating and cooling HVAC system. Each tempered zone is serviced by a zone-specific water source heat pump and individually controlled with thermostats for comfort adjustment. The treatment facility has access to large quantities of treated wastewater that functions as a natural source for energy storage. The water source heat pump condenser loop either siphons from or rejects heat to the wastewater energy well through a heat exchanger, conditional on the season and temperature differential of the source water. This process provides preliminary heating and cooling from an otherwise unutilized source, thus reducing the system’s dependence on mechanically provided cooling and heating. While there are hydronic boilers for supplemental heating in winter conditions, the ability to reject heat into the wastewater energy well eliminates the need for traditional heat rejection equipment, such as a cooling tower, and the associated energy used by such equipment.

In addition to the mechanical and plumbing engineering design, 360 Engineering also performed the commissioning for the project. While any project can benefit from commissioning, it becomes even more critical for high-performance mechanical systems like this. Although the system appeared to be working at the start of commissioning, the process revealed some controls programming issues in operating conditions that may not have been seen for months. By simulating all the possible scenarios of operations, the issues could be identified and resolved before they affected the building functionality and before the contractors demobilized, rather than a drawn-out warranty call in the middle of summer with a hot building.

Berthoud Recreation Center

The Town of Berthoud opened its new Waggener Farm Park recreation center and indoor aquatics facility in November 2021. The recreation center includes a gymnasium, cardio and weight training area, group fitness room, child-watch area, party room, administrative space, climbing wall, locker room, family changing space, and mechanical and storage areas. 360 Engineering provided mechanical and plumbing engineering design services for the new ground-up 34,275 square foot facility.

Given the diversity of uses throughout the building, the mechanical system is equally diverse. Single-zone VAV rooftop units serve the large gym and fitness areas. A specialized pool unit serves the natatorium with energy recovery and dehumidification. Also associated with the pool is chemical storage, which has corrosion-resistant fans. An energy recovery unit serves the locker room area with high air changes. Fan-powered and shut-off VAV boxes fed by rooftop units serve the other spaces. With the variety of uses and ceiling finishes comes various ductwork, from aluminum in the pool areas to handle high humidity to PVC for corrosive fumes, lined ductwork for acoustics, and exposed spiral for aesthetics.

360 Engineering coordinated closely with the pool designer to incorporate a new deck-level exhaust system technology to capture evaporating chemicals on the pool surface before they can mix in the air, improving natatorium air quality. There are also high-volume, low-speed fans in the large open areas for destratification, including the pool, to reduce energy use and increase comfort.

 

https://www.berthoud.org/residents/parks-and-recreation/waggener-farm-recreation-center

 

National Western Center Stockyards Event Center & Yards

The new National Western Center campus is an exciting project for the Denver area, celebrating “the spirit of the west, while also promoting research and progress in agriculture for the next 100 years.” On the HKS Architecture design team, 360 Engineering provided mechanical and plumbing engineering services for the 48,000 square foot Stockyards Event Center and Yards. Along with the other new buildings on campus, this new facility will provide a wide variety of year-round events, cultural and educational opportunities.

Stakeholder communication throughout the project was crucial to meet the facility’s unique needs and accommodate all users, including equestrian, livestock, and bison. Maintenance and operation were also top of mind during design. It was vital to make the infrastructure simple, resilient, and easy to maintain due to being used under harsh conditions.

 

Learn more at the National Western Center’s Website:

Stockyards Event Center & Yards – National Western Center

Historic water tower has a new home – National Western Center

Lone Cone Public Library

The community of Norwood, Colorado, welcomed a brand-new public library and gathering place. In addition to general library space, the nearly 11,000-square-foot building features a lobby, children’s area, multipurpose room, business center with conference room, study rooms, offices, break room, warming kitchen for events, and restrooms. The 2,000-square-foot multipurpose room and warming kitchen provide flexibility for the community to hold meetings and catered events.

On the Anderson Hallas Architects team, 360 Engineering provided mechanical and plumbing engineering consulting and design services. As a primarily tax-dollar funded project, in addition to occupant comfort, the budget was an important factor when selecting the mechanical system. The prefabricated metal building did not allow for roof-mounted systems, so the mechanical design included a grade-mounted RTU and several gas furnaces with split DX cooling. These small furnaces worked well with the architectural design as they fit in tighter spaces, allowing for maximum use of space.

In addition to mechanical and plumbing design, 360 Engineering performed an energy model analysis, helping meet the project’s Green Globes rating system goals.

Denver Northfield Fire Station No. 39

To meet the needs of the growing Northfield neighborhood in northeast Denver, the Denver Fire Department proposed the construction of a new 2-bay fire station to improve their response time for medical and fire emergencies and maintain services associated with the forecasted population growth. The OZ Architecture A/E team designed the new fire station, 360 Engineering fulfilled the mechanical and plumbing engineering services.

The new fire station has apparatus bays, living quarters, a watch office, a fitness area, a community room, a hose tower, a communications tower, and additional spaces to support the needs of the Denver Fire Department. The capacity requirements included housing one fire company — nine firefighters, three engineers, two lieutenants, and one captain — with the capacity to house two companies in the future.

With a LEED Gold goal, the mechanical system design involved a high-efficiency packaged rooftop unit with VAVs, providing heating, cooling, and ventilation to the fire station. Exhaust systems were specified for the kitchen, restrooms, locker rooms, and fire station bays. Make-up air was designed for building pressurization associated with the fire station bays.

The plumbing system design included interior spaces and exterior hose bibbs. In addition, the plumbing design included drains in the fire station bays, sand & oil interceptor for drains in the fire station bays, and coordination with the Civil Engineer on the location of the waste line connection to the main.

Denver Fire Station No. 39 was completed on schedule and celebrated its grand opening on May 31, 2019. The facility is now USGBC LEED Gold Certified.

Longmont St. Vrain Memorial Recreation Center

Located in Longmont’s historic old town district, Longmont St. Vrain Memorial Recreation Center has an indoor gymnasium, locker rooms, classrooms, group fitness room, and weight room with free weights and other exercise equipment.

Hired by Rocky Mountain Trane, 360 Engineering completed a detailed field assessment and provided the Recreation Center with a solution to the indoor gymnasium’s failing Air Handling Unit (AHU). The unit had been modified since installation to serve adjacent yoga and kids tumbling rooms, so the Recreation Center was also looking to improve the zoning in these rooms. Special heat requirements were met for the yoga room to accommodate hot yoga classes.

The final design replaced the failing AHU with (2) Variable Air Volume (VAV) AHU’s with re-heat terminal boxes to separate the gymnasium from other zones at the recreation center and to optimize thermal comfort.

Denver Mountain Parks – CCC Camp Morrison

One of Denver Mountain Park’s 46 properties, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp in Morrison opened in 1935. At one point about 200 men lived in these barracks just south of Red Rocks Park completing various conservation projects.

HistoriCorps, a nonprofit focused on providing volunteers to preserve historic structures around the country, set out to restore 11 of the 14 buildings at the CCC camp in Morrison. One of the old barracks eventually becoming their new office space. Anderson Hallas Architects provided the design to restore this historic barrack and help transform the space for HistoriCorps staff members.

Under Anderson Hallas’ design team, 360 Engineering provided mechanical engineering services from initial site assessment through construction administration. The firm worked within a tight construction budget and followed the client’s direction to use evaporative cooling, which significantly increased duct sizing. These constraints created an added challenge related to duct routing in this historic structure. In the end, the new HVAC and plumbing systems helped convert the space to a comfortable, functional, office environment. HistoriCorps was able to move-in and continue their rehabilitation work at the CCC camp and throughout Denver Mountain Parks.

1881 Pierce – HVAC Replacement Commissioning

The State of Colorado and 360 Engineering have a strong partnership, built throughout multiple mechanical engineering projects completed for the Colorado Capitol Complex buildings and other State buildings. The State hired 360 Engineering to provide HVAC Commissioning Services for Phase 2 and 3 of an HVAC Replacement at 1881 Pierce Street, in Lakewood, Colorado. The Phase 2 project scope involved replacement of two air handling units (22,200 & 24,475 CFM) with hot water and chilled water coils and the two associated return fans. The Phase 3 project scope included replacement of approximately 50 VAV boxes.

360 Engineering developed the detailed commissioning plan establishing individuals’ roles and responsibilities in the commissioning process, requisite documentation, meeting schedule, equipment readiness prerequisites, equipment start-up requirements, functional performance test procedures, acceptance criteria, and O&M training obligations. 360 Engineering reviewed design documents, equipment submittals, system verification checklists, test and balance procedures, and functional performance test results.

During commissioning, 360 Engineering discovered the like for like replacement of the air handling unit did not achieve the fan performance specified and further examination revealed an existing section of ductwork was short circuiting the return fan and needed to be corrected by the design engineer to achieve proper operation.