Union Station Assessment Update

The draft is moving along – we have almost 2,000 photographs, which we are sorting through and organizing. The draft itself is currently over 125 pages without any photographs or other inserts!

We are proceeding with a window and interior door schedule to better organize the various construction dates and help identify exactly what material is original and important to preserve. The interior door schedule has nearly 150 individual doors. ME Group has been working hard on the mechanical and electrical portions and doing a preliminary energy model on the building to provide data on the impact that various scenarios will have on energy costs. The three scenarios are:

1. Existing building: This provides information on present building energy use for lighting, power, HVAC and domestic water heating. This will be the baseline to be compared to other systems.

2. Minimum efficient recommended building system: this models the Station based on ASHRAE Standard 90.1 2007. This standard establishes the maximum energy usage based on new equipment and lighting efficiencies. The Standard provides the recommended HVAC system and lighting densities for this type of building. The recommended HVAC system used is a variable air volume air distribution system, water cooled chilled water plant and district steam for a heating source.

3. High efficient building system: this models the type of building system that exceeds the ASHRAE 90.1 Standard. The system modeled would be a ground source water heat pump system with an energy recovery ventilation system to meet outside air ventilation requirements. This model will provide information on what the energy costs would be on a system that exceeds the minimum ASHRAE Standard.

This model will help make decisions that give the best “bang for the buck” in terms of payback and energy savings as the project moves ahead into design. For now, we are using it as an example of what could be done and combining it with our assessment recommendations.

On the electrical side, a lot of effort has been put into understanding the reproduction of the missing light fixtures in the main train hall. We'll be providing an update on the proposed reconstruction of the large chandelier fixtures, so stay tuned...