Howard Hall Renovation

The Howard Hall renovation consisted of three floors of phased renovation within this occupied academic/research facility.

The first phase of design consisted of the complete upgrade of the mechanical and electrical systems for the fourth, fifth, and sixth floors of the Howard Hall Building, encompassing laboratory/research space for numerous medical research functions. Renovated spaces on the fourth and fifth floors contain both wet laboratories and computer-based dry laboratories in support of the University’s School of Medicine – Program for Human Genetics. The sixth floor renovation was a dedicated 12,500-square-foot animal care facility, complete with a 10,000-square-foot bio-safety level 3 (BSL-3) suite housing eight animal holding rooms and two procedure rooms.

Infrastructure upgrades included new 30,000 CFM 100 percent OA custom air handling units located on each floor to provide conditioned supply air to the laboratory spaces. In addition, three, 75,000 CFM roof-mounted, custom energy recovery exhaust units were designed and installed to serve the renovated floors, as well as to backfeed the existing laboratory exhaust for the remainder of the building. This conversion included a complex phasing scheme to convert the existing exhaust system from individualized fume hood exhaust to a manifolded general exhaust incorporating an exhaust plenum over 200 feet in length at the roof, tied into the three energy recovery units. The work was accomplished with minimal downtime of the building occupants.

The renovations to the upper floors of Howard Hall required significant upgrades to the electrical distribution systems. Normal power was extended from the main service equipment located in the basement and was obtained from spare feeder breakers located within the existing substations. A main distribution panelboard was provided on the sixth floor and served all normal power loads associated with the upper floors. Emergency power was insufficient to serve the loads being introduced on the upper floors and required an increase in capacity. A second generator rated 1500 kilowatts was provided adjacent to the existing 1100 kilowatt generator within a weatherproof housing on the roof. The paralleling gear for both gensets was provided within a separate weatherproof housing on the roof which also housed the emergency distribution switchboard. Emergency power for the upper floors was obtained from this switchboard which served a distribution panelboard located on the sixth floor. All emergency loads inclusive of the air handling systems and associated pumps were served from the emergency power distribution system.