Submitted by Trautman & Shreve Inc.

To consolidate a patchwork of systems installed over the last 70 years in St. Joseph's North Wing, nine original air handling units were disconnected, demolished and removed from the hospital. A new, larger unit was installed on the roof and ducted to each level for air distribution - all while the hospital wing remained fully functional. Because hospital authorities didn't want patients disturbed by noise or construction personnel, the craftsmen had to become virtually invisible and soundless.

For demolition and removal, each air handler was dismantled by hand in to get through small access areas. The pieces also had to be cut small enough to be hand carried out down a small passageway. Each piece was then put into covered trash carts and wheeled through corridors past patient rooms. Demolition areas were also tented in plastic and ventilated so that dust or other potentially hazardous bacteria didn't contaminate the hospital.

Work was trickier on a larger, second-floor unit that was encased in its own mechanical room. Because it overlooked the windows for the labor and delivery wing, construction was constantly stopped. If a baby was being born, crews weren't allowed to work.

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As the project progressed and more of the original systems were exposed, the engineer realized that the current design wouldn't the needs of the building. So a second shaft of exposed duct running along side an exterior wall up to the roof was erected. Assembled on the ground, the 50-ft shaft was built with precise calculation and bracing so it wouldn't collapse during the lift to the roof. Steel framing was installed along the exterior walls to support the duct once it was set. It took an entire day to raise the shaft from the horizontal position on the ground, lift through the air and slide through the steel frame to set vertically into place - a feat never been attempted by the sheet metal crew.

Two pipe runs totaling 80 ft also needed to be installed down through the old shaft. To accomplish this, two pipe sections were prefabricated in the mechanical contractor's Denver fabrication shop in lengths of 47 ft and 33 ft. They were lifted to the shaft opening on the roof and slowly lowered. The size of each section was determined by locating the safest place in the shaft that could be access to assemble the two pieces together. Finally, the new unit was lifted to the roof in 4 sections and set in place.

Submitted by Trautman & Shreve Inc.

The mechanical design and construction teams for the Anschutz Inpatient Pavilion's second-phase build-out were faced with serious challenges. First, the hospital's first six levels are operational, and hospital authorities didn't want the patients disturbed by construction activity. This meant working on levels seven through 12 with only minimal access to the first six.

Second, a new addition was being built adjacent to the existing building. As such, all materials were crane-lifted and delivered to the site through windows. This included 30 miles of piping - the equivalent of 8,000 pieces of pipe, each 20 ft long, 300,000 lbs of ductwork and all of the air flow equipment, and a mechanical penthouse that contains three massive air handling units.

Each unit was shipped in eight pieces weighing up to 12,000 lbs each. A section of an exterior penthouse wall was removed so each piece could be lifted into the mechanical room. Once each piece was maneuvered into place, the units could be assembled.

Adding to the job's complexity, the entire domestic water systems were designed to be upgraded to handle the additional load of the build-out. Because they were built in Canada, the air-handling units were a long-lead item. In order to get the seventh level occupied quicker, a temporary air handling unit was used until the permanent units could be brought online.

The turnover of the domestic water upgrade created another dilemma. Domestic water piping was not complete on the other build-out levels, which meant the new system could not run. To solve this, a temporary domestic water heat exchanger and pumps were used to supply the lower levels, including level seven.

The bone-marrow transplant level presented the next challenge since the area must remain entirely sanitized because its patients have no immune systems. The team designed and built a "no bacteria zone" level. Infectious disease control isolation rooms include fixtures, diffusers and showers that are specially cleaned, sterile and protected with bio-guard.

Hard rock ceilings were installed so bacteria and germs cannot penetrate the ceiling. A dedicated air-handling unit and system was also installed to supply sanitized 99.9 hepa-filtered air.

Submitted by Mark Young Construction Inc.

The design of the 40,000-sq-ft Whole Foods Market freezer warehouse - the company's main frozen food distribution hub for the Rocky Mountain region - provides energy savings through two main approaches. It uses an evaporative water-cooled condenser instead of air-cooled condensers and the heat rejected by the refrigeration system to heat the water heaters for the radiant-floor heat system installed under the concrete slab and insulation.

The freezer and dock space are built with foam-injected metal panels and range in heights up to 23 ft, 4 in. The panels are built within the LEED requirement of 0.65 initial reflectivity and initial emissivity of 0.90. The foam core contains no VOCs, and the blowing agent is HCFC-22, which has a low ozone-depleting potential of 0.05 and is sanctioned for use by the EPA until 2010. The finished panels are completely encapsulated in a material called "Metl," which prevents the off-gassing from the blowing agent after panels are shipped and installed on the building.

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