CLIENT
Bergen County Historical Society
The Bergen County Historical Society, a 117-year old non-profit organization, maintains a 6.7- acre site on Main Street in River’s Edge, New Jersey, strategically situated at the narrows of the Hackensack River that preserves Revolutionary War era history. The Historic New Bridge Landing site is near several Revolutionary War battles and contains buildings from that era, however, the existing buildings did not have space for events. A new building was planned that would house collections storage and a mini-museum host events. The new structure would be a modern timber-framed building, however, contextual design and compatible with the historic buildings on the site.
Legacy Engineers evaluated alternative systems for the new building and recommended an air-cooled heat pump system because of its high energy efficiency, it didn’t require any of the precious indoor floor space and it wasn’t a water-based system where a leak could potentially damage some of the historic artifacts stored in the building. The design consisted of an outdoor condensing unit, an indoor air handling unit and energy recovery ventilator suspended from the ceiling above in the framed roof truss structure of the mezzanine level. The ductwork distribution is routed to the crawl space below the first floor that delivers heating and cooling through floor grilles as the only visible elements of the system in the public space.
Fire alarm and sprinkler protection was provided as required by life safety code; the sprinkler piping was routed hidden from view in between the timber wood structure.