Newark Symphony Hall (NSH), the historic cultural arts institution located downtown Newark, New Jersey The 4-story facility consists of a large concert hall with an entry lobby space, a large ballroom beneath it used for banquets, a black box theater, dance studio, and lockers, green rooms and back of house spaces totaling 210,000 square feet. Under new leadership, NSH was looking to restoring the famed institution to its glory days of the past. One of the items at the top of the list was to understand and get a handle on the building’s utility costs. Their main areas of concern were spaces with failed heating or cooling systems; and the lack of ability turn off certain areas of the building independently of the rest. Toward this end, NSH retained Legacy Engineers to develop a strategic plan to upgrade the building’s infrastructure to modern standards.
Legacy performed an assessment of the building’s mechanical, electrical, plumbing and life safety systems; and prepared an Infrastructure Upgrade Feasibility Study report, detailing their approximate age, capacity, general condition and arrangement; and presented recommendations for their upgrade, organized by priority level: Immediate Replacement, Replacement in 3-5 Years, and Long-Term Vision.
The existing building systems consisted of an antiquated steam heating system that serves cast iron radiators located throughout the facility, however, the piping was old and had been abandoned in place in certain locations. Air conditioning was provided by two air-cooled chiller plants which lacked energy efficiency controls and were approaching the end of their useful life.
A concept design was developed for the facility for NSH is, including construction cost estimates of the proposed work.