University of Colorado at Colorado Springs Science and Engineering Building, COLORADO SPRINGS, CO

TRAUTMAN & SHREVE VALUE DELIVERED

Safe, productive environment for students, faculty, and visitors; reduced energy consumption and costs; isolation of sound- and vibration-producing equipment; specialized support for a highly diverse range of research areas; rapid recovery from a major flood; close coordination with other trades; accelerated construction schedule; LEED Silver certification; zero accidents during 200,000 man-hours of construction.

OBJECTIVES

Overcome extensive spatial and other challenges to install energy-efficient HVAC technologies and complex plumbing systems in a new, five-story, 160,000-sf teaching and research facility.

SOLUTIONS

Using its extensive building information modeling (BIM) expertise, CAD design skills, and some leading-edge construction technologies, Trautman & Shreve helped this client plan and install a complex array of equipment and systems. The scope of work included an advanced cooling storage system, direct evaporative cooling units, high-efficiency condensing boilers, demand-control ventilation, specialty gas piping, a reverse osmosis and deionized water system, class-100 clean-room hepa-filtration, a makeup air system, and all other plumbing and HVAC systems. Overall, the company installed 35 miles of mechanical, plumbing, and gas pipe for 24 different intertwined piping systems.

To help the project gain LEED Silver certification, Trautman & Shreve installed various breakthrough energy-efficiency solutions. One of these manufactures ice during the night, when energy demand and costs are lowest, and then uses that ice during the day to chill water for air conditioning. In addition, the company installed a heating system that reclaims unused laboratory exhaust air and redistributes it throughout the building. It also directs heat generated by the mechanical room equipment into the classrooms. This allows the school to turn the temperature down on the boilers and run them more efficiently. Eliminating noise and sound vibrations was another challenge. Trautman & Shreve met it by using spring hangers to individually isolate each section of the piping and every piece of equipment. More than 30,000 hangers had to be installed, five times more than are needed by a comparable conventional building. To simplify the process, the company downloaded the coordinates for every hanger from the firm’s CAD system to an electronic/optical device that used them to precisely mark each hanger’s location.

Another significant challenge was the building’s mountainside location, which made it difficult to stage and store materials. To address this issue, Trautman & Shreve installed the large mechanical equipment in the lower levels before the structure had been erected. Offsite pipe fabrication and storage coupled with precise delivery and installation scheduling further enabled the Trautman & Shreve team to overcome both space and time limitations. The company’s BIM capabilities also proved valuable. They allowed the company to discover in advance that some humidifiers could not be installed in their designated location. This meant Trautman & Shreve’s CAD experts had to redesign the system to fit in an alternative space without infringing upon already limited lab areas.

Then, as the project neared completion, disaster struck. A flash flood poured 18 inches of water and mud into the building, destroying the mechanical equipment with its associated piping and accessories. Trautman & Shreve tore out the entire installation, replaced all of the equipment, and re-installed it. Yet, the company still met its original project deadline. Additional Information: Trautman & Shreve’s performance earned accolades from AR7 Architects: “Your leadership and attentiveness to layout and coordinating all aspects of the mechanical and plumbing scope with many other systems on the project, in three dimensions, was invaluable. The construction schedule was accelerated because of the work you did which allowed for off-site fabrication of components to the mechanical scope.”

BACKGROUND

The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (UCCS) enrolls over 8,900 students in a variety of unique and challenging academic programs. Its Science and Engineering Building is the largest and most energy-efficient facility on campus. It contains more than 38,000 sf of teaching classrooms and laboratories, 14,000 sf of office space, and 23,000 sf of laboratories. Fields of study and research include bioenergetics, physics, nano-characterization, aerospace engineering, optics, anatomy, and ecology.

OPERATING COMPANY:
Trautman & Shreve, Inc.

CLIENT:
University of Colorado at Colorado Springs

GENERAL CONTRACTOR:
GH Phipps Construction

ARCHITECT:
AR7 Architects

ENGINEER:
M-E Engineers

MECHANICAL CONTRACTOR:
Trautman & Shreve, Inc.

PROJECT DURATION:
32 months

		New Construction
		Retrofit
		Electrical Construction
		Mechanical Construction
		Facilities Services
		Consulting Services
		HVAC Services
		Energy Solutions