Elara Engineering has completed a mechanical, electrical, and fire alarm retrofit of Loyola University’s historic Cudahy Library located on its Lake Shore Campus in Chicago, Illinois.

The MEP upgrade of the 3-story building, originally constructed in the 1920s, will dramatically reduce energy costs while installed systems to control temperature and humidity will help protect and further preserve the life expectancy of the 12,600+ rare books housed in the Archives and Special Collections department of the Library.  The prized collection reflects the liberal arts foundation of Loyola University in the areas of Philosophy, Religion, History and Geography, and Language and Literature.

To achieve the project’s objectives, Elara:

• Converted the building from costly electric resistance heating to hot water heating fed by the Campus’ high efficiency hot water plant.
• Replaced aged and noisy Air Handling Units (AHUs) that provided insufficient humidity control with new custom consolidated VAV and heat pump systems which incorporated energy recovery, including the innovative installation of new fan powered boxes with hot water reheat coils designed to circulate chilled water during cooling to act, in essence; as active chilled beams.
• Installed a new heat pump system with a fluid cooler for the Library’s book stack area and waterside economizer for fan powered boxes via heat exchanger.
• Replaced existing pneumatic control system with a new state-of-the-art Direct Digital Control building automation system tied to the Campus’ network.
• Upgraded the building’s main electrical panel and fire alarm system and modified the electrical infrastructure to support the new and upgraded mechanical systems.