Florida Tech — Harris Student Design Center

Project Overview

The Harris Student Design Center at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida is an 8,000-square-foot building with 1,500 square feet of air-conditioned offices and 6,500 square feet of mechanically ventilated workshop. BEED Engineering provided mechanical and plumbing engineering design, project administration, and LEED Fundamental Commissioning.

A student design workshop is a small industrial building on a campus. Spray booths, welding, compressed air, and make-up air have to coexist with offices next door. Commissioning then checks that those systems operate as designed.

The Challenge

Offices can use a conventional VAV air-handling unit. The workshop cannot. Welding and spray finishing need dedicated exhaust. Make-up air has to replace that exhaust so the shop does not pull from the offices. Compressed air and hot water serve process and plumbing loads that a classroom building would not have.

The design and commissioning had to:

• Ventilate 6,500 square feet of workshop, including spray booth and welding exhaust
• Air-condition 1,500 square feet of offices with a VAV air-handling unit and DX cooling
• Provide compressed air, HVAC controls, make-up air, and hot water heating
• Include low-flow plumbing fixtures
• Commission the air-conditioning, make-up air, HVAC controls, hot water heating, compressed air, and automatic lighting control systems for LEED Fundamental Commissioning

BEED Engineering's Scope

BEED provided:

• Mechanical engineering design for workshop ventilation, spray booth and welding exhaust, compressed air, the VAV DX air-handling unit, HVAC controls, make-up air, and hot water heating
• Plumbing engineering design, including low-flow fixtures
• Project administration
• LEED Fundamental Commissioning of the air-conditioning, make-up air, HVAC controls, hot water heating, compressed air, and automatic lighting control systems

Electrical power design beyond the commissioned lighting controls was not listed as a separate electrical engineering assignment.

Engineering Solutions

The workshop is mechanically ventilated, with dedicated spray booth ventilation and welding exhaust so finishing and fabrication can happen inside the 6,500-square-foot shop. Make-up air replaces exhausted air. A compressed-air system serves shop tools and process needs.

Offices are served by a VAV air-handling unit with direct-expansion cooling and HVAC controls. Low-flow plumbing fixtures reduce water use. After design, LEED Fundamental Commissioning verified that the air-conditioning, make-up air, HVAC controls, hot water heating, compressed air, and automatic lighting controls were installed and operating as intended.

The Harris Student Design Center is therefore both a Florida Tech academic workshop and a commissioned mechanical system — offices on one side of the building, industrial exhaust and process air on the other.