The 12-story Baldwin 200 building was built in 1990 and is part of The Baldwin Center located near Eden Park in Cincinnati. In the fall of 2017, TP Mechanical started working with Cushman Wakefield, GBBN Architects and James Hunt Construction to design the HVAC systems for the first floor and sixth through twelfth floors on an accelerated project schedule.

It was apparent during our initial meetings that budget and timeline concerns existed, so we in turn offered value engineering to the owner’s design criteria and timeline acceleration ideas to help reduce the overall costs without sacrificing comfort to the TriHealth staff for their new headquarters. After being awarded the project, we met weekly with the construction teams, architect and owners’ representatives to ensure collaboration throughout the process. Permit drawings were completed in six weeks so that construction could start.

Once we established the heating and cooling requirements of the building, equipment selections were made and design of the HVAC systems began. One of the main challenges this project presented was that all equipment needed to be delivered to the site – with no lay-down areas available – and brought up to the appropriate floor by elevator upon arrival. Our team’s solution to installing air handling units on the top seven floors was to have all units shipped to our ISO-certified fabrication facility. There, our team disassembled the units and packed the parts for easy transportation and delivery to the jobsite. Once at the site, the units were distributed to the correct floors, reassembled and set in place. Our fabrication facility also prefabricated the mechanical room piping for the air handlers and final connections for all the VAV boxes.

Our last challenge was to remove and replace two make-up air (MUA) units from the roof. In April 2018, we had these units lifted and set into place by helicopter on a Saturday to avoid disrupting the existing tenants during business hours.

We were successful in meeting the accelerated schedule using our prefabrication methods and value engineering ideas to achieve the owner’s budget goals.

Mechanical Solutions Designed, Fabricated and Installed:

• Air Handling Units
• Rooftop Make-up Air Units
• Mechanical Room Piping
• VAV Boxes
• Duct Work and Registers