University Office Building is a four story building located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Since its original opening in 1989 as a Memorial Hospital Cancer Center, the building was purchased by the neighboring university to undergo renovations for their use. The building is now home to faculty and staff offices, computer labs, presentation rooms, small academic spaces, and other mixed use spaces. The programs housed in this building were carefully chosen to fulfill the building’s tradition of engaging in community.

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To maintain the comfort levels of the repurposed building, two penthouse air handling units, heating hot water plant, and chilled water plant were designed for increased efficiency. Additional means of heating and cooling, such as fan coil units and finned tube radiation, is specified in areas that required special attention. Analysis of these systems, along with research for diverse systems, brought attention to some of the problems associated with variable air volume systems.

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Research showed a dedicated outdoor air system with active chilled beam redesign may alleviate some of the issues involved with variable air volume. Thermal comfort, efficiency, and maintenance proved to be some of the design considerations for this proposed system redesign.

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This report investigates the design of dedicated outdoor air and active chilled beams. Design considerations, energy use, and costs of operation, maintenance, and construction are compared to the existing mechanical system to mitigate some of the common problems.

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