Miami University is soliciting qualifications for professional design services. Miami University has decided to remove (3) buildings from campus, and their associated utilities. The removal of steam service to these buildings will allow for additional buildings to be converted off of steam service, as a part of our campus Utility Master Plan. The (3) buildings that shall be removed are Williams Hall, Wells Hall, and Joyner House. Williams Hall (350 S Oak St.) is a 32,000 SF academic building, with a basement and two floors above grade, built in 1959. Wells Hall (301 E Spring St.) is a 50,000 SF residence hall, with a basement and three floors above grade, built in 1923. Joyner House (321 E Spring St.) is a 4,000 SF administrative building, with a basement and three floors above grade, building in 1910. These buildings have high pressure steam service, high and low voltage electric service, gas service, water and sanitary services and telecommunication/IT feeds that all need to be removed back to their respective main trunks as part of the removal process. In addition to these buildings which shall be removed, the structural footings for the radio tower which was previously located behind Wells Hall will need to be removed. The design for restoration of the removed building sites will include revising parking areas, resolving the pedestrian pathways through the area and across Spring St., and plan for future development. The (3) buildings that are to be converted off of steam and onto the campus hot water loop as part of this project are Armstrong Student Center, Warfield Hall, and MacMillan Hall. Designs for converting Warfield Hall and MacMillan Hall off of steam and onto Hot Water were developed by Prater Engineering in 2021, but that portion of the project could not move forward due to interferences with the steam service that was serving Williams and Wells Halls. The selected design team will be expected to review the previous design, and come up with their own design to support these buildings being converted off of steam. Both Warfield and MacMillan will be served with HW primarily from the South Refrigeration Plant following this project, but the future plans for the campus will connect all of our HW plants together, such that the distribution from all plants will communicate. Utility Hot Water was brought into Armstrong Student Center in the summer of 2023, but the building still needs to be converted off of steam. Currently, steam service to ASC serves a few purposes. (1) steam is used to generate Heating Hot Water which serves the buildings preheat coils in air handlers and reheat coils at VAV box locations. (2) this heating hot water is also used to boost the temperature of the domestic hot water used in certain kitchen applications in the building, (3) steam is also piped to air handlers for use in direct injection humidification grids. The intention of this HW conversion of ASC would be to remove the steam to heating hot water converters, and directly connect the building’s heating hot water pumps to the campus hot water supply piping from the Upham HW plant to serve the buildings heating needs. This project will also add equipment to boost the temperature DHW service to the kitchens, and replace the direct injection humidification grids with stand alone packaged humidifiers that will not rely on campus steam. These humidifier packages must be equipped with an RO system to remove hardness from the water being used, as we’ve had a history of issues with humidification equipment that does not utilize softened RO water. The condensate pumps will also be removed from this building, and the steam and condensate service will be removed back through the tunnel to the service mains that exist in a tunnel located to the West of Armstrong Student Center. All of the buildings being converted off of steam should be designed for 130F heating hot water service from the plant that serves them. All of these buildings are on Siemens Building Automation Systems, and are planned to be maintained on the Siemens system.
