DuPont Pioneer and Ryan Companies US, Inc., asked Baker Group to provide design/ build mechanical, sheet metal, compressed air, and building automation system services for the new office and laboratory facility in Johnston, Iowa.  Part of DuPont Pioneer’s campus, this building provides Pioneer staff with 90,000 sq ft of lab and 90,000 sq ft of office space located north of DuPont Pioneer’s existing Beaver Creek I facility.

The HVAC system consists of two roof-mounted custom variable air volume air handling units with a common maintenance vestibule between the two units.  The lab air handling unit is a 100% outside air single pass air handling unit.  A separate air handling unit was provided with an energy recovery coil that captures the fume hood exhaust energy before routing the exhaust air through a high-plume laboratory exhaust fan.  A VAV AHU serves the office area.

The laboratory had extremely high internal loads. Using a conventional air side laboratory cooling system would have required raising the building 2 feet to allow for more space for larger ductwork. Baker Group turned to a unique system design which included chilled beams located in the ceiling. The chilled beams cooled the internal lab sensible load without increase the amount of cooling air required. We installed dry coolers outside to reject heat in the winter months thus decreasing the energy consumption in the building.

The plumbing systems include, a laboratory compressed air system, domestic cold water, domestic hot water, RO water, DI water, steam humidification piping, standard waste piping, lab-grade waste piping, and storm drainage piping.

Baker Group also installed the building automation system (BAS) that controls all of the mechanical systems for the facility as well as provides critical reporting and historical trending of systems.

The combination of the chilled beams and the dry coolers allowed the Owner to receive the largest MidAmerican rebate Baker Group has ever seen.