Located off the 16th Street Mall in Downtown Denver, 16 Market Square is a 260,000-square-foot, nine-story mixed-use building, with top floors consisting of residential units. For long time client, Lincoln Properties, 360 Engineering has provided consulting and mechanical design for upgrades at the building, most recently upgrading the cooling tower.
The building had two (2) 400-ton cooling towers serving the condenser water loop for the building that needed replacement. The existing units were reaching the end of their useful life, and the forced draft style towers were also chronically difficult to maintain. The existing condenser water loop temperature was noted to rise during peak cooling days, so the current cooling load for the building was evaluated and documented in the summary and options for the cooling tower replacement. Based on 360 Engineering’s recommendations, the client selected a single (1,000-ton) cooling tower for the replacement. This project was challenging based on the existing structural base (built for two smaller units), the current windscreen structure, the cooling tower’s location on the roof, and the location of the building.
360 Engineering worked closely with the client and structural engineer to coordinate a design to provide proper cooling capacity for the building occupants, safely secured and protected on the roof, with minimal noise disturbance to the top-floor residential units. 360 also brought in and coordinated with an architect to produce full building elevations required to apply and obtain a zoning approval permit from the City and County of Denver.
During construction, 360 worked closely with the General Contractor to obtain building permits, coordinate submittal and RFI reviews with subcontractors and engineering sub-consultants, and update specific design elements based on field conditions and alternate strategies discussed with both contractors and engineering consultants. Additionally, 360 provided commissioning services to optimize the operation of the new cooling tower and associated systems and controls.
