Projects

Built in 1909, Nagle Hall is the oldest remaining building on Texas A&M University campus in College Station. The university’s Master Campus Plan seeks to preserve and redevelop the campus’ historic district.

Nagle Hall is the first fire-resistant reinforced concrete building on campus. The four-story 29,500 SF building required a highly coordinated abatement and selective demolition process. Shah Smith & Associates, Inc. was selected to provide mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) engineering services on this historic preservation project.

Upgrades to MEP systems were made throughout the facility with emphasis on maintaining historic elements.

Four existing mechanical rooms were refitted and a fifth was a converted penthouse space which was used as rooftop storage.  The penthouse was reinforced before usage as the building material would not support a mechanical room. An outside air handling unit for the penthouse mechanical room had an energy recovery enthalpy wheel installed. The building mechancial control system was upgraded from pneumatic to the latest digitial control technologies.

A transformer was installed on the exterior of the building and is connected to the underground campus medium voltage distribution system. The secondary of the transformer serves the electrical equipment in a new basement electrical room.

Due to the importance of historic preservation, one of the main challenges on this renovation was working with existing space.  The building has low floor to floor heights which limited space for overhead utilities. BIM was used to fit utlities within a nine to 18-inch overhead space. The four existing mechanical rooms also presented spacial challenges.

Some historic elements required detailed planning to work around. Ductwork had to be routed around a main egress staircase. Existing storm drains had all interior piping replaced to keep the historic intergrity of the building exterior.