Bicentennial Hall Student Housing

This project consisted of a three-story student housing building, totaling 180-beds. The building was comprised of primarily four-bedroom suites, each with a shared bathroom and living room. Small lounge areas were provided on each floor. The ground floor includes a private residence for the hall director as well as a common lounge and central laundry facility.

BKM provided MEP design services for this project. Heating and cooling for each suite are provided by vertical, geothermal heat pumps. Three, 100 percent outside air energy recovery units are located in the attic to provide tempered ventilation to each heat pump. The geothermal well-field consists of 600 wells (each approximately 200 feet deep). A prefabricated distribution vault connects a network of buried tubing to a pair of six-inch pipes entering the building. With the geothermal approach, Mount St. Mary’s University not only saves on operational costs but also on maintenance due to the elimination of cooling tower, boiler, additional pumps, and chemical treatment.