Reports from the field

Building Operating Management, Dec 1998

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CARPETING

Authenticity From the Ground Up

Built in 1929 as an upscale department store, the Bullocks Wilshire building was designated as a Los Angeles Historic Culture Monument in 1969. Southwestern University purchased the building in 1994 to accommodate its law library. But restoring and renovating the structure proved to be a daunting task.

The first phase of the library project encompasses 87,000 square feet of the 232,000 square-foot building.

The original store was composed of separate departments and boutiques linked through colors and materials. To keep the restoration authentic, custom carpets were commissioned to reinterpret carpet designs in the original building.

Lees Carpet designed three interpretaions of the original carpet. Approximately 5,000 yards of Thought Patterns custom carpet was installed. These tip-sheared, multilevel loop carpets were influenced by the original building's Art Deco design. The carpet design is created with overtufting, rather than printing.

The Historical Restoration Review Board mandated that the carpet backing not deface terrazzo floors. UnibondTF was used to prevent any damage to the subfloor. With built-in fiber loop backing, the system attaches to hook tape applied to the substrate floor.

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HVAC

Sub-basement Location

Complicates Chiller Replacement Well past their 30th birthdays, the chillers at the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers in Manhattan were no cause for celebration. The 1,100 ton steam turbine-driven centrifugal chillers and 400-ton electric centrifugal machine were nearing the end of their useful lives.

The Sheraton accepted bids for highefficiency chiller alternatives in addition to the .62 kw/ton base bid. In the end, the .528 kw/ton bid was accepted. This alternative promised a payback of less than 3.5 years. The .565 kw/ton option would have had a payback of less than 3 years. The decision to go with the high-efficiency centrifugal chillers was based on long-term operating savings, says Ian Murray, property operations manager.

The equipment chosen to replace the original systems was a pair of 1,100-ton Trane CenTraVac two-stage chillers.

The location of the mechanical room in a deep sub-basement presented a challenge. The units were ordered with separable shells and compressor dowelings. This simplified unit disassembly and reassembly in the mechanical room. The replacement chiller components were lowered into the mechanical room through an opening cut in the concrete floor above. The old chiller equipment was removed the same way.

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ENERGY RECOVERY

Three Birds with One Stone:

Temperature, Humidity, Ventilation Humidity is a major indoor air quality and student comfort consideration for Oglethorpe Point Elementary School, located on Georgia's St. Simons Island. The school looked to SEMCO's energy recovery technology to simultaneously meet ASHRAE Standard 62-1989 for ventilation, maintain acceptable relative humidity levels and reduce energy consumption.