TP Mechanical Contractors, Inc.

Owner:

City of Columbus

Architect:

Harris Architects

General Contractor:

Messer Construction Company

Scope Of Work

The 120 West Gay Street project in Columbus, Ohio, was completed in March 2011 with a total construction value of $32 million.  This 84-year old building housed the city’s former police headquarters and jail.  The project included renovating 130,000 square feet into a state-of-the-art office space and adding a 5-story exterior glass curtain wall.  The challenge was to create the new space while maintaining the historical elements of the building.

TP Mechanical installed the plumbing and HVAC and provided 3-D modeling for system coordination.  The original building did not have air conditioning and communications systems, so ceiling spaces were already tight prior to mechanical, plumbing, electrical and communications.  Coordination was critical role in this project to prevent routing conflicts during the upgrades.  TP Mechanical also installed a new mechanical plant with redundant chillers, boilers, pumps, heat exchangers, and energy recovery units.

Site logistics were a concern because the building was located in the heart of downtown Columbus.  Parking, traffic diversions, crane usage and material storage were coordinated through our consistent schedule review and work projections.  We were able to reduce the overall impact to downtown by scheduling the crane for multiple purposes at one time and by delivering prefabricated material.

The building was certified as LEED Silver by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC).  A major component to the energy savings was utilizing a well for the condenser water running through the chiller.  This provided a significant savings to transfer the heat into the earth rather than through a mechanical piece