Projects - Texas Southern University Science Building
Houston, Texas
The project involved the addition of a new 168,000 square foot higher educational facility. The new building was four levels high and contains numerous teaching and research laboratories for the departments of instrumentation, organic chemistry, natural science, physical chemistry and inorganic chemistry. Approximately 50 exhausted fume hoods and 20 exhausted bio safety cabinets are spread throughout the facility that could cause the building to experience a negative pressure relationship with the surrounding environment under certain operating conditions. This potential problem was avoided by utilizing large quantities of fresh air to make up the difference between the re-circulated air and the exhausted air to the building's air handling units.
Energy efficiency was maximized with the use of variable air volume air conditioning systems, which tracked the air quantities exhausted by the fume and bio safety exhaust systems to maintain the proper pressure relationships at all times.