Bowie State University, New Student Center
Henry Adams provided the mechanical and electrical engineering design services for the new 95,695 GSF, LEED Gold Student Center at Bowie State University. The project was designed as a vital hub of campus activity and provides dynamic spaces for students to gather, work, eat, and relax. Spaces include multiple retail and meal plan dining venues, bookstore, game room, theater, as well as a variety of lounge spaces.
The second floor provides dining for staff and food service plan holders. The 2,860 SF kitchen and 9,260 SF dining room is designed to serve up to 90 staff members and 833 students per sitting. The serving area/kitchen is broken up into six different food service outlets and each provides a different food type.
The first floor contains a 1,620 SF retail dining area which contains three foodservice vendors for retail food purchase. This facility also contains a 585 SF staging kitchen for outside caterers to serve food for functions located within the multipurpose rooms.
The food service facilities contain 12 variable air volume cooking hoods with two additional duct systems for two future hoods. Each variable air volume cooking hood has a dedicated variable air volume exhaust fan. A single variable air volume unit provides the required make-up air volume ducted directly to each hood. The 610 SF dishwashing area is maintained under a negative pressure with respect to the surrounding area through a constant volume exhaust system. The challenge with this dining facility was to handle the ventilation/exhaust air flows in an energy efficient manner while maintaining the proper building pressurization. When a temperature is sensed within the hood, the building automation system equates this to the proper airflow allowing the ventilation and make-up air systems to react appropriately.
The site design included coordination with an ongoing medium voltage distribution upgrade and a new theater project. New 13.2kV distribution was incorporated to serve dedicated a pad-mounted switch and 480Y/277V liquid-filled transformer. Electrical work included underground infrastructure to support campus IT upgrades, including service to the new building.
Building lighting included daylight harvesting and 0-10V dimming at multiple locations. The digital lighting control system consisted of distributed digital room controllers, a central lighting relay panel, and vacancy sensor switches. The building power design included standard distribution as well as separate life safety, optional standby, and fire pump branches on the generator.
Special systems designed by Henry Adams included the security system and the lightning protection system. Security included full electronic access control system consisting of card readers, door position switches, electric strikes coordinated the with the campus standard Schlage hardware system.
The building was designed with sustainable features to achieve LEED Gold Certification such as a green roof. It is the first LEED certified building in the campus’ history.
Additional Information:
| Location | Bowie, MD |
| Construction Value | $36,000,000 |
| Owner | Bowie State University |
| Architect | WTW Architects and Grimm + Parker Architects |