BY ROBERT P. MADER of CONTRACTOR’s staff
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Elmira, N.Y.-based mechanical contractor Kimble Inc. is putting the finishing touches on its work for a major renovation project at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum here.
The Hall of Fame is adding exhibit space and archival storage space in an expansion project expected to finish in 2005. Other than having visitors enter the building through the gift shop while construction was underway, the project will be completed without disrupting any operations of the Hall.
Kimble has added new air handlers, a new chiller, boiler, cooling tower, pumps and terminals units, and the contractor has also added onto and upgraded the plumbing system, said Project Manager Patrick S. Bonnell Jr.
The Hall of Fame was a U-shaped building, Bonnell explained, so the expansion project filled in the middle of the U.
Two existing Trane chillers, two boilers and an evaporative cooling tower served the original building. The new mechanical room backs up to the old one in the basement of the building.
Kimble installed three new custom-built Temtrol air-handling units, one at 17,000 cfm, and the other two at 10,000 cfm in the old mechanical room. Getting them in there was not easy. The building has an underground “areaway” around its perimeter. The air handlers were moved 100 ft. through the areaway and then through a hole cut in the 4-ft. thick foundation wall into the mechanical room.
The new chiller room contains a new Bell & Gossett 300-gpm chilled water pump and a new B&G condenser water pump. Two chilled water and two condenser water pumps are in the old chiller room. A fourth 900-gpm chilled water pump runs through a plate heat exchanger for free winter cooling from the cooling tower.
“These three chillers supply the entire Hall of Fame campus, including the library and administration area,” Bonnell said. Besides the new Temtrol air handlers, at least three existing air handlers serve the Hall of Fame.
Kimble installed a steam, fuel oil-fired Bryan Steam boiler that produces 1,680 Mbh, which joins two existing fuel oil boilers. Some thought was given to replacing the massive fuel oil tank underneath the Hall of Fame parking lot, Bonnell noted, but that was eliminated from the scope of work. Preferred Utilities duplex pumps, moving 285 gph each, pump oil to the boilers. These boilers supply a 6-in. steam line to the steam coils in the new air handlers and return it through a 1-in. condensate return line.
The air handlers supply a duct system with 19 VAV boxes. The mixed air system pulls outside air and return air through the air handlers with three large return air fans mounted at the air-handling units. Air handler No. 1 serves the theater, with a 9,000-cfm return air fan, air handler No. 2 supplies the atrium and its return air fan pulls 10,000 cfm and air handler No. 3 takes care of the gallery space, with 15,300 cfm being returned.
In addition to the VAV system, heating and cooling in the Hall is handled by a number of terminal devices.
There are two cabinet unit heaters in the vestibule at the entrance area, a reheat coil for supplemental heat for the staff break area and one for supplemental heat for the first floor bathrooms. Most of the heat for the bathrooms comes from fin tube radiation.
There are five steam unit heaters: one in the boiler room, two to heat the crawl space and two in the new mechanical room.
The ductwork contains clean steam humidification units. A Cemline clean steam generator supplies the humidification units. Regular building steam is brought to this generator, which heats up the reverse osmosis water, creating clean steam. Treated steam ensures that the artifacts are protected.
Three large humidification units are at the air handlers. The process is the same for these humidifiers — building steam heats RO water in the three Dri-Steem humidifiers, and this clean steam is pushed through a humidification coil in the Temptrol air handlers.
The Siemens DDC control system controls the humidity output to 35% relative humidity when the outside temperature is below 20°F, 40% RH up to 35°F and 45% RH at 36°F or warmer.
The Hall of Fame has archival storage that is conditioned by Liebert standalone units.
Kimble upgraded the plumbing system. In the basement, the firm installed a sanitary drainage system in the new mechanical room, a storm drainage system in the new areas of building, and new domestic and cold-water service through both the new and renovated areas of the building.
Domestic hot water is supplied by a steam-heated circulating system without storage that can produce 144 gph.
Kimble installed Eljer toilets and sinks with Sloan flushometers and faucets in a staff break area restroom and in men and women’s public restrooms.