COH - Southwest Police Station
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Owner: City of Houston
Architect: RDLR Architects MEP Engineer: Infrastructure Associates Construction Budget: $20M |
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The City of Houston Police Department continues to grow, and thus required the design of a new ground up Police Station on the South West side of Houston. Infrastructure Associates designed the MEP system as a sub-consultant to RDLR Architects. The new 50,000 square foot LEED certified building features offices, conference rooms, holding areas, a fitness center, locker rooms, etc. includes a 2,300SF space for community gathering purposes. This station will also be used as a shelter in place and is included in City of Houston “Critical” operation facilities during abnormal events such as hurricane. This facility is equipped with a sophisticated emergency backup system to achieve this objective. MECHANICAL DESIGN Mechanical (HVAC) system design incorporates state of the art high efficiency air-cooled chillers for chilled water generation, indoor water heaters/boilers for hot water heating, and local Air Handling Units (AHU) for space cooling/heating. Cooling/heating for each independent zone is controlled by means of an independent Variable Air Volume (VAV) box that is served by one of the six AHU’s in the building. The maintenance shop and associated support space has a separate Direct Expansion (DX) unit since it is an isolated building. ELECTRICAL DESIGN Energy efficient LED light fixtures and occupancy sensors were used in the lighting design of the building. Harmonic mitigating transformers were utilized to provide efficiency and cleanliness to the computer and non-linear loads throughout the building. Because of the critical operation occurring in the building, a 600kW generator was designed for 100% building occupancy and operation. Natural lighting techniques were employed to reduce use of artificial lighting as much as possible. This led to great savings on energy cost, and on up-front costs of purchasing more fixtures than necessary. Infrastructure Associates designed the electrical power distribution system, lighting, life-safety, and fire alarm system for the facility. PLUMBING DESIGN Plumbing design services included typical sanitary and water distribution system. Domestic hot water was generated from multiple gas water heaters and distributed through the building serving various restrooms and lockers / showers area. The facility was provided with vehicle maintenance area with multiple maintenance bays. The maintenance bay was provided with piping distribution containing compressed air, motor oil, transmission fluid, anti -freeze and power steering fluid etc. from the bulk storage to the service hose reels located in the service bays. Fire Protection sprinklers system consists of wet pipe within the air-conditioned spaces and with dry pipe sprinkles system for the open service bay areas. |