Project Brief

Building 692 at the US Military Academy is a one-story, 3,200 SF building first built as enlisted quarters in the nineteenth century and later converted into the Chaplain's Annex. The Directorate of Public Works renovated it under a design-build contract to reorganize the floor into shared and private offices, a reception and waiting area, a conference and training room, a kitchenette, a nursery, and two restrooms, one of them accessible. KeRi led the design set, with Purcell Architects on the architecture, and carried the work through submittal review.

The building had no central HVAC, only hot water baseboard off an old oil-fired boiler and window air conditioners. The boiler, baseboard and window units were removed, and two air handling units with variable speed fans now serve the building from two 3.5-ton heat pump condensing units on grade, with electric heating coils for backup, cabinet unit heaters in the lobbies and janitor's closet, and exhaust for the restrooms. A 30 gallon electric water heater replaced the boiler for domestic hot water.

The old 100 A service was replaced with a new 200 A, 120/208 V service fed underground from a new manhole at the neighboring Building 364, sequenced so the building was without power only briefly, with new LED lighting and a new fire alarm system with a remote annunciator.

MEP Engineering Scope

What We Engineered

MEP and fire alarm for the Building 692 renovation:

• Removal of the oil-fired boiler, baseboard heating and window air conditioners
• Two air handling units on 3.5-ton heat pump condensing units, with electric backup heat
• Restroom exhaust, cabinet unit heaters and a 30 gallon electric water heater
• New 200 A service fed from a new manhole at Building 364
• New LED lighting and a new fire alarm system with remote annunciator
• Design set coordination with the architect for the design-build contract

The Challenge

A small nineteenth-century building ran on an old oil boiler, window air conditioners and a 100 A service that had to be replaced from a new source across the road.

Our Solution

KeRi replaced the boiler and window units with heat pump air handlers, brought in a new 200 A service from a new manhole with minimal outage, and added LED lighting and a new fire alarm.