Kennedy King College is a new six-building, 500,000-square-foot complex located on the south side of Chicago. The buildings include culinary, broadcast studios, theatres, laboratories, day care, classroom, gymnasium, natatorium, applied sciences, library, and office and garage spaces.
Primera was the lead MEP engineer for the campus and also provided construction phase support throughout the process. The buildings are heated and cooled utilizing dedicated outside air systems (DOAS) with dew point control and enthalpy wheel heat recovery as the first stage of conditioning and four-pipe sensible fan coils within the spaces for second stage conditioning. The use of the DOAS system allowed the owner to maximize ceiling height without increasing building height and minimize mechanical space within the building. The DOAS actively controls moisture content in the building by managing the largest source of moisture directly.
Primera designed the electrical distribution system for the campus including 12kV distribution, medium voltage switchgear, paralleling switchgear, campus wide ductbank system, fused switches, step down transformers, and power distribution in each of the buildings. Primera also designed the fire alarm and fire protection systems for the campus.
