University of Colorado Denver
Denver, Colorado
The new CU Denver Business School located in Lower Downtown Denver was designed to consolidate school operations from 15 locations and to connect Denver’s central business district with the Auraria Higher Education Center. Through this consolidation, the Business School building—which was once home to Quiznos’ headquarters—would be able to create a stronger, clearer identity and enhance communication among students and faculty.
The Business School conversion was completed in two phases. The first phase involved a complete build-out of Floors 1−2 and replacement of the building’s mechanical and electrical infrastructure. The second phase involved build-out of Floors 3−6. Building highlights include a new Center for Commodities, a “smart” classroom with state-of-the-art computers that can perform high-end trading simulations, and a special classroom for the school’s Managing for Sustainability Program.
As the project’s mechanical/electrical engineer, The RMH Group was responsible for designing energy-efficient and highly functional building systems to meet stringent LEED performance requirements; upgraded systems included:
- Replacement of existing air handling unit with variable-air-volume unit incorporating an energy recovery wheel, direct evaporative cooler, and airside economizer to reduce HVAC energy consumption
- Replacement of existing boiler with two high-efficiency condensing boilers to further reduce HVAC energy consumption
- Replacement of existing chiller with high-efficiency, water- cooled centrifugal chiller providing additional cooling capacity to meet classroom demand requirements
- Conversion of building-wide pneumatic controls to DDC to allow for improved HVAC controllability
- Replacement of existing plumbing fixtures with low-flow fixtures to reduce overall water usage
With these and other upgrades implemented, the project earned LEED for Core & Shell (LEED-CS) Gold certification.
Certifications
Certified LEED-CS Gold