Penn State East Sub-Campus Chiller Plant

The chiller plant, with an abutting parking deck on its east side, is a high-bay steel structure designed to accommodate a modular series of centrifugal water chillers and induced draft counter-flow cooling towers. With an ultimate capacity of 15,000 tons of cooling, linked to a campus-wide central utility loop, the plant will provide district-wide cooling. In addition, a centrifugal fire pump and anointed distribution provide life-safety protection for five new structures in the sub-campus. Considerable attention was paid to architectural design, to address and minimize both visual and acoustic impact of the plant on its surroundings. The façades are predominantly brick with ground face CMU and cast stone details complementing the architectural pre-cast of the parking deck and the light colored stone of adjacent buildings.