Higbee Building Renovations, Cleveland, Ohio

The Higbee Building is an 870,200 sq. ft. multi-story historical building built in 1931 that is connected to Tower City on Cleveland’s Public Square.  The flagship retail store was known for its tenth-floor Silver Grille restaurant and was prominently featured in the 1983 movie A Christmas Story.  The building was closed in the late 1990’s and since then, McHenry & Associates, Inc. has been involved with several mechanical and electrical shell building infrastucture renovations.  

The first renovation project occurred during 1999-2000, which converted the upper 8 floors of the building to a telecommunications lease building.  Our design services included:

- Design of fire protection sprinkler system renovations for the building, including removal of the existing gravity storage tanks on the 14^th floor and design of a new electric fire pump at the lowest level of the building.  New sprinkler stairwell risers were installed throughout the building while maintaining existing active sprinkler systems on the lower floors.

- Design of new domestic water booster pump system.

- Conversion of the 11^th floor to an 11kv transformer substation room with electrical shafts incorporated into the building for telecommunication and power tenant distribution risers.  This floor was also planned for approximately 30 telecommunication tenant emergency generator layouts and we were responsible for designing generator ventilation and engine exhaust systems for the floor within the limited constraints of the building.

- A new diesel storage fuel tank facility was designed in the Tower City parking garage, capable of 80,000 gallons of storage capacity, to provide fuel back up for the 11^th floor generators.  The storage facility was provided with a foam fire suppression system, secondary fuel containment and ventilation in accordance with NFPA standards, with fuel piping riser shafts incorporated into the existing building.

2nd Renovation

The second renovation project occurred during 2007-2008, which converted the Basement level, 1^st floor and 2nd floor of the building (approximately 163,000 sq. ft.) to office lease space. Our design services included:

- Design of a new central system water-source heat pump loop for the floors by utilizing an existing 800-ton cooling tower on the 12^th floor roof and existing condenser water main risers routed through the historical building.  New condenser water pumps and plate-and-frame heat exchangers were installed in the Basement with new variable speed heat pump loop pumps and piping distributed to the floors for tenant connection to provide air conditioning throughout the year. 

- Design of a new hot water fin tube radiation heating system, which involved removal of all existing steam heating systems on the floors, installation of new steam-hot water heat exchangers and new hot water heating pumps, piping and perimeter fin tube to the floors.

- New ventilation systems were incorporated into the building by installing 100% outside air and relief air handling units in the Basement below the adjacent Landmark Building and providing ventilation and relief air risers for tenant connection.   A heat recovery system was incorporated into the ventilation system, as well as a water-cooled chiller design for ventilation air cooling.

- Design of new domestic water risers, sanitary/vent risers and condensate wet column risers in discrete locations for tenant connection.

- Design of new energy management and tenant electrical metering systems.

- Full power distribution system design for the tenant and mechanical spaces was included.  This involved modifications to 11^th floor substations and busduct routings to multiple floors for flexible power distribution.

- Fire alarm and telecommunication system extensions were provided for each new tenant floor.

- Design of a new centralized lighting control system to enable time schedule based control of public and landlord space lighting.

3rd Renovation

The third and most recent renovation project is currently under construction (2008-2009).  It is similar in nature to the second renovation project and involves the conversion of  6^th, 8^th and 9^th floors of the building (approximately 222,000 sq. ft.) to office lease space. Our design services included:

- Design of a new central system water-source heat pump loop for the floors, including removal of an existing cooling tower and supporting steel structure on the 12^th floor roof and the installation of a new 1000-ton cooling tower on new steel framing.   New mechanical systems have been designed on the 11^th floor, including condenser water pumps, plate-and-frame heat exchangers, variable speed heat pump loop pumps and piping distributed to the floors. 

- Design of a new hot water fin tube radiation heating system, which involved removal of all existing steam heating systems on the floors, installation of new electric hot water generators on the 11^th floor and new hot water heating pumps, piping and perimeter fin tube to the floors.  All mechanical equipment on the 11^th floor has been installed on raised structural support framing with spring-type inertia base equipment pads because of the limited floor loading capacity of the floor and to reduce vibration transmission into the existing structure.

- New ventilation systems were incorporated into the building by installing 100% outside air and relief air handling units on the 14^th floor of the building, which previously housed large sprinkler and domestic water gravity storage tanks.  The air handling units have been carefully designed and are sectionalized to permit rigging from Ontario Avenue to the highest level of the building.  Each unit includes an enthalpy heat recovery wheel to transfer building energy/heat to the intake air for preheating and precooling of air to maximize energy efficiency. 

- Ventilation and relief air risers have been provided from the units through central utility shafts for tenant connection

- Design of new domestic water risers, sanitary/vent risers and condensate wet column risers in discrete locations for tenant connection.

- Design of new energy management and tenant electrical metering systems.

- Additional busduct power distribution was designed for the new tenant floors.

- Fire alarm, telecommunication and lighting control systems were extended to new tenant floor.

- This project has been submitted to the USGBC for LEED Gold rating under Existing Building Core and Shell.