Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming hosts approximately 4 million visitors each year, many of whom elect to stay overnight. Of the Park’s several accommodation areas, Canyon Lodge and Cabins is the largest, offering approximately 500 beds including the cabins. The National Park Service decided to undertake a two-year redevelopment of the aging Canyon Village Lodge. The old cabin complex was demolished and five new three-story buildings were built, providing more than 400 rooms including two-bedroom suites.
The design team was tasked with providing heating and ventilating systems for the new buildings, including the main lodge of approximately 38,000 square feet. The Yellowstone Canyon Village Area Redevelopment was a unique project using pre-fabricated rooms and systems that were dropped into place, then the mechanical systems were connected and completed.
The mechanical design utilized high efficiency condensing boilers with a high delta T to optimize the boiler efficiency and reduce pumping horsepower. The heating water system also supported the large domestic hot water load for the building. The building was designed for winterization of the mechanical and plumbing systems by allowing all the systems to drain down in a simple maintenance order. Design provided a winterized gravity drain down system (plumbing and hydronic heat) for entire lodge. The challenges presented by the winterization drain down required significant coordination with the integrated team for the solution. Throughout site visits, 360 Engineering sat down with the winter caretaker/head maintenance person to review the design early-on to make sure the buildings were easy to maintain and winterize based on his resources. Buried by snow in the winter, the lodges re-open with snow pack. Access to the mechanical room and seasonal start with snow pack was another concern during design.
Working closely with the entire team, including Yellowstone maintenance personnel, Xanterra Parks & Resorts, Inc., Barker Rinker Seacat Architects, and equipment manufacturers, 360 Engineering delivered effective, efficient mechanical systems. Awarded LEED® Gold for four buildings and LEED® Silver for the larger registration building and lodge.
Read further on how hoteliers are using prefabricated building methods in an article by JLL, which also mentions this Yellowstone Canyon Lodge and Cabins project: Why prefab building methods stack up for hotels
