1145 19th Street

Project Description

1145 19^th St. NW is a near fully occupied medical office building containing many tenants. The 8-story building totals 133,000-sf. and offers medical tenants a variety of services, including on-site radiology, surgery center and lab testing – all while being five miles away from four hospitals.

Ownership decided to renovate the building to create a more inviting atmosphere for patients – including a fitness area, locker rooms, a lounge area and a loft overlooking the lobby– and upgrade the mechanical systems for better operating efficiency.

The scope of the night shift renovation included a total conversion of the existing dual temp – chilled and heating water – fan coil unit, an air handling unit system with a water cooled variable refrigerant system, an outdated control system to a modern front end with complete controls/alarms for all systems and valves for the new system, existing chillers and existing cooling towers. An additional smaller cooling tower was also added due to capacity and efficiency during the colder months.

STRATEGIES

Entering this job, Mallick Mechanical Contractors understood the plan of action but recognized problems may emerge. In order to limit these, weekly morning meetings following night shifts and frequent critical path work meetings were organized between Mallick Mechanical Contractors, James G. Davis Construction and occasionally ownership.

Due to the complication of the job, these meetings were a vital routine for constant communication and planning regarding all plumbing and mechanical interests between night shift leadership and daytime office operations.

CHALLENGES

With tenants arriving to work during the daytime, Mallick Mechanical Contractors and subcontractors – approximately 40 people – were required to work at night for over a year.

Each night, Mallick Mechanical Contractors had to move in and out of an occupied building in an efficient and attentive manner. Teams would enter individual medical offices, place protection for dust generating activities, install proper equipment and piping, test and fix any areas of need and clean the office to ensure tenants were not impacted. Each workspace was then inspected for cleanliness prior to the tenant’s return in the morning.

One of the largest problems involving the night shift was that most major suppliers do not systematically make deliveries in the time frame that our crews are working, and the location of the project provided little to no lay down area.

In order to resolve these issues, Mallick Mechanical Contractors established a coordinated supply chain system that sent all vendor material to the warehouse to be organized and then delivered internally to the job site at night.

Due to system modifications and owner expectations, the project was pushed into an unattended season, requiring temporary heating. Mallick Mechanical Contractors – along with some assistance of Carrier – arranged and modified the existing system to temporarily function until the new VRF system was fully installed. To accomplish this, a boiler and piping was placed in the adjacent alley and piped into the existing mechanical room.

Mallick Mechanical Contractors completed this revision due to proper communication with appropriate parties, reacting appropriately and providing conditioning that was not foreseen.

TESTIMONIAL

“The Mallick team did a great job tackling one of our most difficult occupied renovation projects. [Foreman] Steve B. did a tremendous job leading the field staff to another successful project with the DAVIS team. Steve continuously went above and beyond to deliver the best quality and meet our deadlines.

The Mallick team did a fantastic job working in occupied medical office space, off-hours for over a year and made sure to protect and provide excellent housekeeping”

 Kyle Jiron, Project Manager, James G. Davis Construction