| Hoover's Inc.
HVAC System Cuts Costs; Adds Comfort and Pizzazz to New Hoover's Headquarters.
AUSTIN, TX - Fabric duct helps transform a 50-year-old industrial bakery into high tech office space for business information provider, Hooverıs Inc.
The retrofit was no easy task for architect firm, Boka Powell, Dallas, Texas. Luckily, Hoovers' principals agreed to the currently vogue industrial style of interior design. That afforded architects, interior designers, and engineers the advantage of retaining many of the former ButterKrust Bread factory's authentic touches such as exposed steel girders, six-foot-square wall exhaust ventilator propeller fans, the steel ceiling, and other existing industrial features. The result provides Hoovers and the one-story steel and masonry buildingıs owner, Riverside Resources, an Austin-based commercial real estate developer, with a state-of-the-art, high-tech office building. |
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While the warehouse style design strategy of exposing the 20-foot high steel ceiling added to the spaceıs aesthetics, it also presented a HVAC challenge. Plus, cooling hundreds of workers stationed at open cubicles in two large 30,000-square-foot rooms required strong and even air flow, but without drafts. Thomas Alexander, principal, Talex, Inc. Engineers, chose fabric duct air dispersion manufactured by DuctSox, Dubuque, Iowa.
"There's absolutely no comparison between this HVAC system and the system in our old headquarters", said Sally Collier, Hoover's director of training and operations. "The airflow before was drafty and cold in certain areas, but now nobody even notices that the air conditioning is on, except for the fact they feel comfortable."
Using over one mile of varying diameters of DuctSox's round TufTex, the air conditioning is draft-free and evenly distributed because of thousands of one-inch-diameter orifices in a linear pattern at four and eight oıclock on the ducts. DuctSox's in-house engineering department designed the orifices' uniform diameter and varying patterns to meet Alexanderıs specifications for proper static pressure, cfm and air flow throughout different locations in the office worker areas. "The high ceilings combined with a heavily occupied space created a problem of providing air flow that wouldnıt be drafty or uneven as would probably be the situation with metal duct runs and registers placed every five or eight feet," said Alexander.
Choosing fabric duct versus metal duct lowered the projectıs bottom line. Round air ducts would complement the industrial style, however double-walled steel duct was cost-prohibitive. Round single-walled steel duct would also cost more than fabric duct because it would necessitate external insulation to eliminate condensation accumulation. Besides raising the project costs, insulated duct would also detract from the desired interior design aesthetics.
The polyester-based fabric duct also assists in the architect and interior designerıs attempts to soften the space acoustically. With a building shell consisting of hard surfaces, the fabric duct combined with fabric covered cubicles, ceiling insulation, carpeting and other sound absorbing materials reduced reverberation and noise.
An added benefit to Alexander's design is the fact that a fabric duct installation isn't as permanent as metal duct and can easily be rerouted by a contractor in less than a day in accordance to Hoovers' desire for future cubicle reconfigurations.
The HVAC design not only conformed to the industrial appearance, it also provided a high-tech indoor air quality (IAQ) solution with even, draft-less air distribution all while helping cut project costs."We've had quite a few visitors that are impressed with the look and the functionality of our workspace," added Collier. |
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