Cultural & Civic
A museum or concert hall holds its value in the environment it maintains — a stable humidity band that protects irreplaceable collections, and air so quiet a pin-drop carries to the back row. We deliver MEP design, prepared for your engineer of record’s review, with close-tolerance HVAC, low-vibration distribution, clean power, and plumbing routed clear of the collections, all engineered around what can never be replaced.
Tight Tolerances for Collections & Performance.
Two failure modes drive much of the design in this sector: a humidity swing that cracks a 300-year-old panel, and a rumbling diffuser that ruins a pianissimo. Most building HVAC tolerates drift this sector cannot. We set the ASHRAE type of control the collection actually warrants, drive air slow enough to hold an RC/NC target, and route avoidable water piping clear of the gallery — coordinated with your team and documented for the engineer of record to seal.
Environmental Control & Preservation
Close-tolerance temperature and humidity sized to the ASHRAE type of control the collection warrants — not a blanket 70/50 guess.
- Type of control (AA/A1/A2/B/C/D) selected per ASHRAE Applications Handbook Ch. 24 against collection sensitivity and risk
- Tight RH bands (typically 45-55%) with documented seasonal-drift and short-fluctuation limits
- Reheat, active humidification, and desiccant or mechanical dehumidification to hold setpoint year-round
- Vapor-barrier and envelope coordination to keep wall and glazing surface temperatures above the room dew point at setpoint
- Dedicated systems and tighter tolerances for vaults, archives, and incoming-loan galleries
- Redundancy and graceful-failure modes to limit gallery temperature and humidity excursions after a coil or fan loss
Quiet, Low-Vibration Air Systems
Performance and gallery acoustics are an HVAC spec — held with oversized ducts, low velocities, and isolated equipment.
- RC/NC background-noise targets (often NC-15 to NC-25 for halls) driving fan, duct, and diffuser selection
- Low-velocity, large-section ductwork with generous sound-attenuator and plenum runs
- Displacement or under-seat plenum supply for auditoriums and lecture halls
- Spring isolators, inertia bases, and flex connectors breaking structure-borne vibration paths
- Mechanical rooms and shafts located and acoustically separated from sensitive spaces
- Stage, orchestra-pit, and fly-tower conditioning coordinated with the theater consultant
Electrical, Lighting & Power Quality
Clean, reliable power for exhibits and stage, with conservation-grade lighting that protects what it reveals.
- Gallery and exhibit lighting to ANSI/IES RP-30 with UV control and lux-hour exposure limits for sensitive media
- Stage dimming, house lighting, and theatrical power coordinated with the lighting and AV designers
- Clean power and robust grounding/bonding for AV, controls, and sensitive exhibit electronics
- Assembly egress and emergency/standby lighting per NFPA 101 and IBC means-of-egress
- Standby power for collection-critical environmental systems and security
- Lighting controls and daylight harvesting tuned to conservation limits, not just energy code
Plumbing & Fire-Protection Coordination
Water designed to stay away from collections — and suppression coordinated so the cure isn't worse than the fire.
- Domestic water and waste mains routed away from collection, archive, and performance areas wherever practical
- Pre-action (single- or double-interlock) sprinkler zones over galleries and stacks to guard against accidental discharge, coordinated with the fire-protection engineer's design
- Clean-agent suppression (NFPA 2001 — inert gas or FK-5-1-12) for vaults and rare-collection rooms, coordinated with the fire-protection engineer's design
- Humidification make-up water and condensate managed with leak detection in sensitive zones
- Public-assembly restroom cores sized to occupant load with code fixture counts
- Storm and roof drainage routed clear of spaces holding irreplaceable material wherever practical
Life Safety, Smoke Control & Coordination
Large-volume assembly and stage houses carry smoke-control and egress demands many ordinary buildings don't.
- Smoke control where the adopted code requires it, such as atriums connecting more than two stories (IBC Section 404.5), designed to IBC Section 909 and NFPA 92
- Proscenium stage smoke ventilation and opening protection per IBC Section 410
- Assembly egress, fire alarm, and mass notification coordinated across disciplines to NFPA 101/72
- Energy compliance (ASHRAE 90.1 / IECC) balanced against the tight setpoints preservation can require
- BIM coordination with exhibit, casework, rigging, AV, and acoustic vendors
We don't apply a universal 70°F/50% RH to everything — that's outdated and often wasteful. We select an ASHRAE type of control (AA, A1, A2, B, C, or D, per Applications Handbook Ch. 24) matched to your collection's sensitivity, risk tolerance, and energy budget, which sets both the band and the allowable seasonal drift and short-term fluctuation. Vaults, archives, and incoming-loan galleries can carry tighter requirements than general exhibit space, and we document each as its own design basis the licensed engineer of record on your project can review and seal.
Designed to the RC or NC target the room demands — for concert halls and theaters that's frequently NC-15 to NC-25, among the most demanding in any building type. We get there with oversized low-velocity ductwork, generous sound attenuators, displacement or under-seat supply, and equipment on spring isolation and inertia bases to limit structure-borne vibration. We set the criteria with your acoustician early, because acoustic criteria often drive duct sizing and routing as much as airflow does.
Water damage can equal or exceed fire damage for collections, so suppression is tailored to the space. The fire-protection engineer designs the system; we coordinate the MEP around it. Over galleries and stacks, pre-action sprinkler systems (single- or double-interlock) are common, because a single damaged sprinkler does not admit water while the detection system has not operated. For vaults and rare-collection rooms, clean-agent suppression to NFPA 2001 — inert gas or FK-5-1-12 — extinguishes without leaving residue or wetting the contents; we coordinate it with detection and the building fire-alarm system.
Yes. Atriums connecting more than two stories generally need smoke control under IBC Section 404.5, designed to Section 909 and NFPA 92; other large-volume spaces are evaluated against the adopted code; and stage houses with fly towers carry proscenium smoke-ventilation and opening-protection requirements under IBC Section 410. We coordinate the mechanical smoke-control sequences with egress, fire alarm, and mass notification to NFPA 101 and 72, and write sequences the commissioning agent and AHJ can test against.
Preservation criteria and ASHRAE 90.1 / IECC compliance can pull in opposite directions, so we engineer the trade-off deliberately rather than chasing one and failing the other. Selecting an appropriate type of control, recovering energy where it doesn't threaten setpoint stability, and tuning lighting to conservation limits (lux-hour and UV) lets us document a compliant, defensible design. We confirm the AHJ's adopted code edition up front, so the energy path goes into plan check documented against the standard the reviewer is actually enforcing.