Savannah College of Art and Design

NDBS again teamed with Clayco on this design/build residence hall at SCAD in Savannah, Georgia. The 4-story, 115,000-square-foot building was constructed using insulated, pre-cast concrete wall and floor panels to accelerate the construction schedule. The panel fabricators worked in conjunction with the design team using 3D building information modeling (BIM) of MEPFP systems to coordinate wall and floor openings for each trade. The facility houses 218 dorm rooms, that are conditioned using water-source heat pumps.

In the cooling season, water loop heat is rejected using a single-cell cooling tower with variable-speed fan for precise control of supply water temperature. Heating is added to the system using a high-efficiency boiler system operating in a lead/lag configuration, providing 60% redundancy. Two dedicated outdoor air systems were installed to provide required ventilation air to the building. These units utilize energy recovery wheels to reduce the cooling tonnage and increase energy savings.

Built in three phases on 6 acres, this project was on a congested site — so sequencing, site utilities, and keeping Montgomery Hall open during construction made this a challenging project.