CASE STUDIESCustom HVAC Configurations for Custom Spaces

Modeled after Victorian-era steamboats, the Riverboat Twilight (Twilight) offers one- and two-day cruises on the upper Mississippi River. Passengers enjoy guided views of the natural scenery, landscapes and wildlife, which includes eagles and hundreds of bird species. They also see storied river towns, modern tugboats and the historic, but still functional, locks and dams that make river travel possible. But it’s the ornate, all-wood, gingerbread interior and overall aesthetic of the Twilight that transforms the site-seeing into an authentic.

The Market at Liberty Place, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, is known for its vendors’ mouth-watering array of food, playful layout and patio. Visitors bring their food to the patio, which features glass garage doors and a concrete floor. The patio is open year-round. In the middle of winter it’s not uncommon to see guests kick off their shoes and press their icy toes against the floor. The barefoot visitors are an odd but understandable sight: While it’s freezing cold outside, the patio floor stays amazingly warm. That warmth is possible because of the market’ cooling and heating system: Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) zoning technology from Mitsubishi Electric.

Project Location: Seattle, Washington
Completion Date: May 2013

CHALLENGE
Selecting a cooling and heating system that could handle the small load of a super-efficient home

SOLUTION
Zoned Comfort Solutions® from Mitsubishi Electric

RESULT
Year-round comfort in Seattle’s first certified Passive House

A few years ago, the Fagins heard about the passive house concept and were eager to bring a high-performance home to Texas. Knowing that efficient mechanical system selection is key to low-load homes, Fagin Partners utilized Mitsubishi Electric’s Zoned Comfort Solutions® and its Performance Construction Team to make the Lively Passive House a reality.

Studio Gang is an architecture and urbanism practice based in Chicago and New York that works at a range of scales to help organizations, people and cities design their future. Focused on a design process that emphasizes sustainability, experimentation and collaboration, Studio Gang has been in Chicago since its founding by Principal Jeanne Gang 20 years ago. Recently, after years of renting space in Wicker Park, Studio Gang purchased and renovated a small building down the street. In addition to completing an adaptive reuse of the upper two floors, which now accommodate approximately 70 employees, Studio Gang built a prairie on the roof and an adjacent, enclosed event space. That 21,000-square-foot office is now cooled and heated by a Hyper-Heating INVERTER® (H2i®) Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) system from Mitsubishi Electric.

Since its inception in 1910, St. Patrick Catholic Church (St. Patrick’s) in Lake Forest, Illinois, has been a place for the community to gather. Over time, as the Lake Forest community grew, the 3,900-square-foot building underwent several structural renovations to accommodate new members and guests. In 2016, after tolerating many years without air conditioning, the church decided to install a new HVAC system in an effort to make the space even more comfortable for the large congregation. It turned to Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) technology from Mitsubishi Electric.

When bank manager Catherine O’Neill retired in the California wine country in 2009, she decided she wanted a comfortable and environmentally friendly retirement home that made a distinct energy-efficiency statement. In a cul-de-sac of early 1960s ranch houses a few blocks from the central plaza in historic downtown Sonoma, Calif., she discovered a run-down 1962 farmhouse that had not been lived in for years but had “good bones.”

To prevent local businesses from moving, the town and the Castle Rock Economic Development worked together to propose a new office building called The Move – a name that symbolized how businesses wouldn’t have to move outside of city limits to expand. The town decided on a 50,000-square-foot, four-story building to house businesses from fast-growing industries like marketing, food auditing and general contracting. To keep businesses productive and comfortable in the new workspace, the project team wanted a quiet and reliable HVAC system that could meet tenant needs throughout the entire year. The solution was Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) systems with Hyper-Heating INVERTER® (H2i®) technology from Mitsubishi Electric.

Since its inception in 2007, The Bank of San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, has been built on strong relationships and quality service. However, when the bank’s success started to grow exponentially, it needed to find a space to accommodate employees and customers. After breaking ground on a new, 56,000-square-foot office space in 2015, the bank needed to find an energy-efficient HVAC system that offered quality comfort and control. The search ended by selecting Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) technology from Mitsubishi Electric.

The Asbury United Methodist Church (AUMC) has been in operation for 228 years. Its current home in Harrisonburg, Virginia—a century old, three-story stone building— recently underwent a major renovation. As part of the effort to repair and upgrade the entire space, Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) technology from Mitsubishi Electric was selected for AUMC’s education wing, classrooms and outreach room – a total of 23,000 square feet.