Projects

Shah Smith & Associates, Inc. (SSA) provided MEP Engineering services for the renovation of the Austin Community College (ACC) Building 1000 on the ACC Rio Grande Campus.  This renovation includes the conversion of the existing historic Building 1000 into educational spaces to support the diverse array of programs offered by Austin Community College. This project also included site improvements around Building 1000, new north and south courtyards, a new Austin Energy Transformer vault, new diesel generator and new central plant including boilers and water-cooled chillers located at the CUP in Building 3000.

    
Under a previous renovation, ACC upgraded Building 3000 and the current renovation is for Building 1000 to be upgraded.  ACC has plans for the Annex Building on the site to be renovated and in the future, there are plans for a building to be added on the north side of the campus. 

This project created space for many different educational programs:

ACCelerator
A large space which includes multiple workstations and helps foster a collaborative work environment among students.

Commons/Multipurpose

Two large 3 story volume spaces which allow students to lounge in one area and the other multipurpose space will allow for presentations and large gatherings.

Laboratories

The wet laboratories located on level 2 and 3 include areas for the Biology and Chemistry groups. The laboratories include Biology teaching classrooms, Biology prep rooms, Chemical storage rooms, Chemistry teaching classrooms, Organic chemistry labs housing 10 – 8’ fume hoods and 1 – 5’ fume hood.

There are dry laboratories located on level 1 for the physics and geology group.  This space has been designed to accommodate certain light and sound demonstrations within the space.

Deaf Community

This area in the building will be designed to maximize the effectiveness of the deaf community teaching staff members. This area will include specialty classrooms and computer teaching labs.

Learning Lab

The learning lab will include a large open space with perimeter classrooms, conferences and support spaces.  This area will allow for students to get one on one learning opportunities and work with other students to learn in a unique atmosphere.

Library
The library will be located on level 2 and will be a 2-story volume space with a mezzanine level on one side. The library will include several work areas to allow for a quiet space for students.  In addition to the library space, this will also include a maker space which will house 3-D printers and other similar equipment.
Food service areas will be located on level 1 and will allow for food prep and reheat catering services within Building 1000.
Instruction and office space for continuing and adult education
Offices for faculty and staff
Building support and services spaces as needed to support the larger campus
 
The existing building was designed with two large courtyards located within the building. In order to maintain the architectural openness of the building’s public spaces as well as to support the integrated program of the college, these large courtyards were provided with a new ETFE roof system and converted into interior spaces. The spaces were converted to 3 story open atria and this impacted the design of the fire protection, fire alarm systems, as well as required a smoke exhaust system.  SSA worked with the architect and the code consultant to properly size this system and to work out the makeup air locations.
 
Using energy saving measures including chilled beam air conditioning, energy efficient LED lighting with daylighting and occupancy controls, and ultra-low flow faucets, SSA designed the Building 1000 mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems for sustainability.
 
The building’s mechanical systems combine comfort with efficiency. Chilled beams provide cooling for a majority of the building. This air conditioning technology allows for local cooling and ventilating of individual spaces, while reducing the amount of ventilation air and reheat energy from what would be required by typical variable air volume (VAV) systems.
 
At ACC Rio Grande Campus Building 1000, ventilation air is provided to the chilled beams by a pair of dedicated outside air handling units located in a new penthouse. SSA designed each chilled beam air handling unit with not only standard exhaust air heat recovery to precool the outside air coming into the unit, but also an additional desiccant wheel to reheat and dehumidify the supply air from the units without drawing reheat energy from the campus plant. This enables the system to provide a consistent flow of low humidity, perfectly tempered air, improving occupant comfort while saving energy.
 
The large volume, high people density spaces, are served by VAV air handling units which have all the components to provide energy recovery via an enthalpy wheel and also allow for economizer mode. Air is supplied to most spaces through standard overhead distribution with the exception of the atria.  The atria spaces utilize a displacement ventilation system, which is possible by the use of fan powered terminal boxes located in the basement mechanical rooms.
 
The laboratories are designed with VAV lab tracking terminal boxes to allow for the airflow to modulate based on heat load, equipment make-up air requirements in the space (hood sash position) and air changes.  The laboratory exhaust system is served by 3 high dilution exhaust fans sized with N+1 redundancy and provided with an energy recovery coil to provide pretreating of the makeup air for the 100% outside air laboratory air handling unit.
 
The central plant is provided with magnetic bearing water-cooled chillers to provide optimal energy efficiency and meet LEED and AEGB efficiency standards.  In addition, new condensing type hot water boilers have been provided to increase the efficiency of the heating water system.
 
In order to meet water conservation measures, SSA has a condensate recovery system that provides makeup water to the central plant.