Hilton Rialto Place — MEP Systems Assessment

Project Overview

Hilton Rialto Place in Melbourne, Florida is a 146,000-square-foot hotel with 237 guestrooms, meeting rooms, and ancillary spaces. BEED Engineering provided an MEP systems assessment of the existing building.

This assignment was not a design of a new hotel. It was an evaluation of the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems already in service — central plant, guestroom terminals, kitchen and laundry equipment, and electrical distribution — so the owner could see what was there and what needed further testing.

The Challenge

A full-service hotel concentrates almost every MEP system type in one building: water-cooled chillers and cooling towers, boilers, air-handling units, fan coils, domestic water boosting, fire pumps, laundry, walk-in coolers, dishwashing, and a main electrical service. Drawings are often incomplete. Operating staff know symptoms; they may not have a current inventory of equipment condition.

The assessment had to:

• Identify the installed MEP systems across 146,000 square feet and 237 guestrooms
• Cover mechanical plant, hydronic distribution, HVAC terminals, plumbing, fire protection pumps, and electrical gear
• Flag electrical equipment that needed a more detailed test than a visual survey

For a complete assessment of electrical systems, BEED recommended infrared scanning of electrical cabinets, breaker panels, fuses, bolted connections, and switchgear.

BEED Engineering's Scope

BEED provided an MEP systems assessment of Hilton Rialto Place. The work was an evaluation of existing systems, not construction-document design for a new building.

Engineering Solutions

The assessment documented the hotel’s installed systems, including gas-fired boilers, chilled and hot water piping, domestic water booster pumps, water-cooled chillers, cooling towers, air-handling units, fan coils, variable frequency drives, packaged DX systems, fire pumps, commercial laundry equipment, walk-in coolers, dishwashing machines, the main service switchboard, motor control centers, electrical panels, lighting control, and the voice evacuation system.

That inventory is the starting point for capital planning. Infrared scanning of electrical gear, which BEED recommended, is the next step when a visual MEP assessment is not enough to judge connection and overheating risk in a 237-room hotel.