BKM provided MEP design services for the Culinary Arts Center, a single-story building located on the campus of Prince Georges Community College tailored towards providing a specialized environment for education in the culinary arts fields.
The Culinary Arts Center houses three commercial style instruction kitchens, classrooms, offices, dining areas, event spaces and a 2,200-square-foot lobby with a commercial grade display kitchen. The primary purpose of this building is to provide training for students and community members interested in the various culinary arts fields. Along with the instructional kitchens used primarily by the students, there is a community kitchen located in the center of the building. This area is equipped with residential type kitchen equipment and night classes will be provided to offer culinary training for people in the surrounding communities.
Extensive mechanical and electrical systems were required for this building due to the large amount of kitchen spaces. A premium efficiency air cooled chiller serves as the primary source of cooling for the building, while a gas-fired condensing boiler meets the heating needs. Two rooftop air handling units condition and distribute air to VAV terminal units throughout the building. Both units were provided with economizer controls for energy conservation and the unit primarily serving the kitchen areas is equipped with an energy recovery wheel. This building contains eight (8) commercial style kitchen exhaust hoods to serve the instructional and display kitchen areas. Each hood is equipped with demand control ventilation for optimal energy performance. Four dedicated outside air (DOAS) rooftop units with heating and cooling coils serve the make-up air needs of the kitchens. Also present in the instructional kitchens and the community kitchen is a variable refrigerant flow (VRF) supplemental cooling system. This system helps overcome the excessive heat output of kitchen equipment and ensures that the spaces are cooled to 75 degrees even during the operation of the kitchen equipment. A sophisticated automatic temperature control system was installed to allow seamless operation and communication between the kitchen hoods, DOAS units, VRF systems, and the VAV terminal units.
A new SF6 insulated 15KV switchgear was provided to service the building. Controls were provided for automatic transfer of the switch’s loop-feed power sources. The existing medium voltage distribution system on campus was modified in order to extend loop-feed service cables to the switch as needed. Available fault current was calculated based on coordination with the local utility. A medium voltage pad mount transformer was provided and fed by the 15KV switch via a radial feeder. Transformer insulating fluid was specified as biodegradable less-flammable seed oil allowing closer proximity to the building. Electrical site utilities were relocated as needed to make way for the building footprint. This included new ductbank design including the relocation of a 15KV cell phone tower feeder. Ductbank design was also provided with profiles for the primary and secondary feeders. An emergency natural gas generator was provided to supply back-up power for egress lighting, heating systems, server equipment, and walk-in refrigeration. Due to the assembly occupancy of the space, a voice evacuation type fire alarm system was provided. This was networked into the campus’s main system via a fiber network. A 250 KVA Active Harmonic filtration system was provided to accommodate large amounts of VFD load and also to provide power factor correction. Additionally, interface was provided for all hoods as needed to shut off power and eliminate make up air during a fire event. Emergency power off systems and a pre-action sprinkler fire alarm interface were provided for the data loads. LED lighting and lighting controls were implemented in accordance with ASHRAE 90.1 – 2010. Controls included occupancy sensors and daylight harvesting with automatic dimming. Digital addressable drivers were utilized for future versatility. A lightning protection system was provided on the roof which included all mechanical equipment.
