450 West 17th Street (The Caledonia) NEW YORK, N.Y.
Mechanical Construction Services: Heating & Air Conditioning Systems
VALUE DELIVERED
A new upscale property for the client’s commercial real estate portfolio, extraordinary mechanical services to help the client exceed a tenant’s expectations during a holiday season, the flexibility needed to adjust to seasonal commercial heating and air conditioning system requirements, superior tenant comfort and convenience, significant energy cost savings.
OBJECTIVES
To construct an energy-efficient 27-story apartment/condominium building.
SOLUTIONS
For this mechanical construction project, Heritage Mechanical Services furnished and installed a complete mechanical system capable of meeting today’s demanding tenant, energy and other facility needs. In the main mechanical room, the company installed two 400-horsepower dual fuel (gas and oil) boilers that feed low-pressure steam throughout the building. A Vari-Vac System was installed to control the vacuum steam supplied to the apartments/condos. This is a fully automated HVAC system that relies on inside and outside temperature averages to cycle the output of the boilers, based on heating load requirements, ultimately maximizing heating capability while minimizing energy costs. Adjacent to the mechanical room, located in the cellar, sits a 15,000-gallon fuel tank storing oil, which the boilers can use as an alternative to gas in the winter or as an emergency backup.
Heritage Mechanical Services provided HVAC
installation of a low-pressure steam main, which sends low-pressure
steam to various A/C unit re-heat coils as well as the domestic hot
water heaters. The main also supplies vacuum steam, part of the Vari-Vac
System, to over 1,100 packaged terminal air conditioning (PTAC) units
located within the individual apartments. A two-cell cooling tower on
the roofworks with a plate and frame heat exchanger in the cellar to
maintain the condenser water loop temperature.
Additional commercial heating and air
conditioning units serve the corridors, lobbies and other incidental
spaces between the North, South, and West Towers. For example, two
40-ton gas-fired rooftop packaged units serve public corridors in the
27-story north tower; two 15-ton packaged indoor units with steam
heating coils warm the 12-story west tower, and one 21-ton packaged,
gas-fired rooftop unit helps maintain a comfortable environment in the
8-story south tower. Twentyone steam-fired unit heaters serve the
mezzanine, first floor and basement/parking areas, while 17
“extended-range” water source heat pumps help condition the main lobbies
and multiple amenity spaces, such as business centers and residential
lounges, as well as party rooms on the 9th and 12th floors.
Finally, Heritage Mechanical Services integrated
these components with 225,000 pounds of industrial HVAC ductwork and
40,000 linear feet of pipe. The company also fabricated and installed a
10-gauge black iron flue to connect each boiler stack and tie into the
main boiler flue, which was vented out of the 27th floor.
During the week prior to the Christmas holiday,
Heritage Mechanical Services provided an innovative mechanical solution
to meet the urgent needs of one of the client’s major tenants. Equinox, a
spa/health club, had scheduled its grand opening for the holiday
season. Unfortunately, the building’s boiler room was not ready to heat
the tenant’s space. Using a temporary mobile steam boiler parked outside
the building, the company piped steam back into the building’s first
floor mechanical system. From there, the firm diverted the steam into
the main header in the boiler room, where it was circulated to the
Equinox facility, creating a comfortable environment for the tenant’s
opening event.
CLIENT BACKGROUND
The Caledonia is a luxury rental in New York’s West Chelsea area, where it has been built along the High Line, New York’s most unique and exciting urban park. Using materials and textures inspired by nature and the city, the Caledonia includes amenities intended to relieve urban stress, such as rustling bamboo trees in the open air garden and water that cascades into the lobby’s stone reflecting pool.