Pharmacy North renovate labs

Renovate several high-performance laboratory spaces, break room and an office in the R.C. Wilson Pharmacy building.

Organization: University of Georgia Facilities Management Division
Role: Mechanical Design Professional
Project type: HVAC renovation; laboratory renovation; ductwork modification; exhaust system design
Skills: heat-load calculation; equipment selection
Software: Excel; Revit; VariTrane Duct Designer

Project context

Intent was to further design goals by another engineering firm's two phase project to renovate the Pharmacy building, of which, only phase 1 was completed. The HVAC scope included partial demolition and replacement of the existing supply air system. Dual duct terminal units were replaced with constant volume terminal units with hot water reheat. Fume hood exhaust fans and their associated ductwork were replaced and a general exhaust fan was installed to serve all labs. All existing fume hoods and their associated ductwork and exhaust fans were replaced. New fume hoods were also installed to increase the capacity of research activities. Existing roof curbs and new roof curbs were utilized. The plumbing scope included re-piping of utilities to the new fume-hoods, new sinks with de-ionized water, new ADA compliant eyewash and shower, and new lab turrets for air and vacuum lines.

My work

I performed inter and intra-lab air balances to ensure that all relevant IMC and UGA codes and standards were met during the design for new and replacement fume-hoods for a safe and effective research space. Care had to be taken, to ensure that the existing equipment would meet the current and future needs of the lab space and adjacent lab spaces. Heat-load calculations were performed in Trane Trace 3D and Excel to ensure that the existing HVAC equipment was capable of meeting the load, and the new constant volume terminal units were sized appropriately. I created multiple point-clouds before, during and after the renovation work, to help correct in-house archival drawing errors with the dimensions of the spaces. VariTrane Duct Designer software and Excel was used to calculate the required duty points of the new exhaust fans for the project. Project construction design and construction required intense inter-disciplinary and inter-team collaboration, given time, budget and space restrictions.

New exhaust fan. A good exhaust fan installation for a laboratory fume hood needs both good design practice and good installation - this one had both!

Hallway in a lab building, with one ceiling tile shifted over and a ladder leading up to it. — Below ceiling serenity. Given all the hours I spent in the ceiling in this building, it was easy to forget all the chaos once you climbed down into the occupied space.

Picture above the ceiling of ductwork for a laboratory. — Limited space. Given we had to work with the surrounding existing HVAC system, installation often occurred in extremely cramped spaces! This project was a measure ten times, and cut once, kind of situation. Point clouds really helped to find where we had only inches to spare.

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