Leeds School of Business
Renovation and Expansion
University of Colorado at Boulder
Boulder, Colorado
Photograph © Casey A. Cass and
The University of Colorado
Date: 2007
Cost: $32,000,000
Area: 165,000 GSF
LEED® Gold Certified
SBEC is the Mechanical and Electrical Engineer of Record for the Leeds School
of Business Renovation & Addition,
which became LEED® Gold Certified in 2007 and included the renovation of 100,000 GSF and the addition of 65,000 GSF. The expanded facility includes classrooms, offices, conference and meeting rooms, research labs, student lounges, library, information commons with a cafe, full commercial kitchen, atrium and computer labs.
The mechanical design featured custom air handling units with fan wall technology, VAV, chillers, cooling tower, hydronic heat, variable speed
pumping, atrium smoke control, complete plumbing systems and automatic
fire sprinklers.
The electrical design included a new
13.2 kV looped
primary feed, 480V upgrade, new emergency generator and building power
distribution, fire alarm system, voice data and A/V systems.
SBEC used CFD modeling of typical classrooms to analyze air flow patterns
and profile. Balancing and testing was utilized in existing units to
establish air flows and capacities and pressure testing of ductwork
was performed to determine integrity.