C O M M E R C I A L E N V I R O N M E N T A L
New Trier High School
Location: Winnetka, Illinois
Sales Representative: Air Filter & Equipment Corporation; Chicago, Illinois
Mechanical Contractor: Hill Mechanical Group; Chicago, Illinois
Consulting Engineer: WMA Consulting Engineers, Ltd.; Chicago, Illinois
Architect: Cashman Stahler Architectural Group; Lombard, Illinois
Penthouse prepares New Trier High School for future studies
As the premier college preparatory public school in Illinois,
New Trier High School demands perfection from its students,
staff and heating, ventilating and air conditioning system.
Situated a block from Lake Michigan in one of the most
prestigious north shore communities of Chicago, the school
is using three 330-ton Mammoth Custom Penthouse units
with evaporative condensing to create a more comfortable
climate for students, faculty and staff.
To combat the muggy summers and windy, dry winters on the shore of
Lake Michigan, New Trier High School chose the Mammoth Custom
Penthouse units to create a more comfortable climate for learning.
“Public schools have typically taken a traditional approach
to HVAC installation in that they only study built-up chiller
system solutions, but we believe the Mammoth equipment
has significant advantages,” said John Neiweem, director
of physical plant and property services for the New Trier
School District. “In terms of overall cost, quality control
and maximizing available space within intense time
constraints, we really needed to do a turnkey engineering
and construction job and it became clear that Mammoth
was the ideal solution.”
S Y S T E M S G R O U P I N C .
Creating Climates
for Learning
COMMERCIAL
ENVIRONMENTAL
SYSTEMS GROUP
Bringing the factory to the field
Although scheduled to be completed over a two-year period
the $12 million renovation project, which included $1.7
million in Mammoth equipment, was governed by stringent
time constraints given the almost year-round occupancy of
the school. With summer school classes playing an
important role in New Trier’s curriculum, the aggressive
project schedule was reduced to only 112
working days. Coupled with the fact that
increasing enrollment is placing a premium
on space availability, Neiweem and his staff
steered away from the traditional field-built
system toward the prefabricated
mechanical central plant equipment room
provided in Mammoth’s Custom Penthouse.
Mammoth's expertise in the design and
application of packaged equipment was
instrumental in compressing the critical-path
of the engineering and construction sche-
dule. The Penthouse approach saved
approximately 90 days. With a staff devoted
to the design and production of penthouse
equipment, Mammoth had a definite
advantage over engineers who don’t work
with this type of equipment on a daily basis.
Also factoring into the decision to use the
prefabricated equipment was Mammoth’s
impressive job list with the Custom
Penthouse, which includes a paramount
project at the Mall of America in
Bloomington, Minnesota. For Neiweem and
his staff, a visit to the mall and a tour of
Mammoth’s production facility provided a
firsthand look at the Custom Penthouse, in
terms of its performance and the quality of
construction.
“New Trier Maintenance Manager Gene
Black and I studied other Chicago-area installations, the
Mall of America and Mammoth's impressive facility and
we decided Mammoth could deliver,” Neiweem said. “From
an engineering perspective, is was an ideal application for
us. Educators are under intense pressure to predict how
institutions are going to deliver instruction in the future,
particularly with the growing impact of technology, so the
real key for the physical plant is flexibility. We decided that
Mammoth could provide us with optimal flexibility.”
For Gerry Gragg of Air
Filter & Equipment, who
lists New Trier as his
prestige project in the
Chicago area, the group’s
visit to the mall was also
crucial from a sales
perspective.
“The Mall of America is
an impressive job for
anyone considering the Project coordinators at New Trier High School chose Mammoth's prefabricated Custom
purchase of this type of Penthouse for its ability to meet time constraints while accommodating existing duct work,
equipment,” Gragg said. increasing usable space within the school and improving indoor air quality.
“The older I get, the more
I believe in the
importance of customer visits. We don’t have showrooms the increasing popularity of interdisciplinary instruction and
and retail stores where we can show people our products, cooperative classroom techniques is changing the way
so we like to take the time to visit a job like the mall and let classes are taught in terms of room configuration, which
our customers do a little tire kicking for themselves. It’s really makes VAV an excellent choice for the long-term expec-
an essential part of a sale this complex and technical.” tations of the system.
While observing the quiet operation of the penthouse equip-
ment made quite an impact on project coordinators, there A total package
were a number of other factors that appealed to their needs. In 1921, when architects designed New Trier High School,
In addition to being centrally located, the rooftop system they had no idea that the school would be educating 3,000
was attractive because it increased usable space within the students in 1995 and an expected 4,200 by the year 2004.
school and provided flexibility in terms of the ability to Their inability to predict the future was reflected in a set of
reconfigure the internal footprint if necessary through the blueprints that left no allowance for an HVAC system in the
use of variable air volume (VAV). According to Neiweem, four-story building.

Manufacturer's involvement, partnership with Johnson Controls ensu

From conception to start-up, the HVAC project at New
Trier High School is a textbook example of a job well done.
While each supplier took responsibility for its respective
portion of the project, teamwork among all parties was
critical to the success of the project. A prime example, is
the partnership between Mammoth and Johnson Controls,
Inc. (JCI), which provided for high quality HVAC units and
controls, in addition to a flawless integration between the
two components.
“The strength of our relationship with Johnson Controls
was very important and everything worked beautifully,”
Gragg said. “Mammoth received all the equipment, wired
it in place, plugged in the microprocessor controls, started
it up, and it all ran like it was designed to. There were no
wire termination errors.”
The key word in Gragg’s account, is partnership. Mammoth
personnel took an active role in the design and planning
stages to ensure proper integration and operation. Mammoth
personnel and JCI engineers also devoted many hours to
working out the details of the controls, together. Johnson’s
Metasys NCU hardware system had been selected by New
Trier as the result of a performance contracting agreement,
and it was determined early in the project that all controls
would be factory installed by Mammoth.
“Mammoth has a very talented man in Dave Nelson, who
is a behind-the-scenes electrical wizard,” Gragg said. “He
was one of the representatives from Mammoth that worked
with JCI to iron out all the details and shortly after the meeting
started, it became very apparent that Dave knew more than
the rest of us. He told them how to best wire the units and I
give him a lot of credit, along with the team on the floor
 Faced with the task of replacing a 60-year-old steam heating
system while creating a more comfortable climate and
improving indoor air quality, New Trier chose three packaged
units, each with four 75-ton screw compressors, direct
expansion (DX) cooling and an evaporative condenser. Each
330-ton unit employs two centrifugal plug fans to supply a
total of 300,000 cfm of conditioned air to classrooms,
laboratories, computer rooms and administrative offices
within the school.
A healthier learning environment
Prior to the installation of the Mammoth units, the school
used more than 120 window air conditioners and 18
packaged units to service administrative offices and computer
labs, but no classrooms in the 722,000 square-foot facility.
To improve indoor air quality and meet federal regulations
for proper ventilation, the new system was designed to
measure outside air intake. Based on those measurements,
variable speed fans increase or decrease ventilation as
required. As a final air quality measure, carbon dioxide
monitors evaluate return air from occupied spaces and
additional fresh air is introduced as required.
“Indoor air quality was a significant concern because federal
regulations have gotten progressively stricter. In terms of air
quality, we were simply not code-compliant so we wanted
a system that could exceed existing standards and provide
future flexibility in meeting increased regulations,” Neiweem
said. “Another major plus for us was the migration of our
outside air intake from its environmentally undesirable
location in the subbasement up to the roof, which improved
air quality and allowed us to recapture 15,000 square feet
of needed storage space.”
The move of the outside air intake was part of an innovative
design by the Chicago-based Cashman Stahler Architectural
Group, which utilized interior light courts to house supply
and return duct work. When the high school was designed,
res total control, integration
and checkout. Anytime you have a job this complex, it’s
nice to meet face-to-face with the controls contractor and
manufacturer.”
The units have sophisticated direct digital controls (DDC)
that are elaborate even by DDC standards, which made the
partnership and combined knowledge of Mammoth and JCI
even more critical. The package includes condenser control,
carbon dioxide sensors, airflow monitors for outside air
intake, a smoke cycle and a biocide/inhibitor interface.
Additionally, a fan disable switch is located at each service
door to ensure safe maintenance conditions.
“Mammoth did an excellent job coordinating and integrating
the controls with Johnson Controls and they were factory
installed without any problems,” Neiweem said. “They had
a highly skilled team that helped keep everything on track
and change orders never became an issue.”
four light courts were penciled in to
provide natural light to classrooms
located on the interior of the building.
In the corner of each court, a steel
tower with galvanized exterior panels
services each floor of the school.
Using architectural cladding designed
by Cashman, the risers blend with
their surroundings to preserve the
natural architecture of the building.
“We also had a 60-year-old steam system and filthy duct
work, so what we really needed was a new artery,” Neiweem
said. “We also didn’t want to give up any prime real estate,
so the duct work that Mammoth provided was great. We
revitalized the steam mains to get up to penthouse units and
it was a great solution.”
Quiet in the library, please
With two units located directly over classrooms and one
above the library, transmission of noise from the central plant
equipment and fan-powered boxes was a major concern to
project coordinators. To ensure a quiet environment, fan
powered box sizes were limited to 1,250 cfm and each
Mammoth unit was placed on a 5-inch thick slab of concrete
and a structural steel platform that floats on 12 spring-isolated
housings to meet a sound power rating of NC 30.
Passing with flying colors
With Phase I of the project completed and one unit already
creating a more comfortable climate for learning, Neiweem
is pleased with his decision to use Mammoth’s Custom
Penthouse.
“Mammoth has met every milestone of this project,”
Neiweem said. “We are pleased with Mammoth's rooftop
equipment and we are hoping to use their equipment when
we renovate our music building next summer.”
In addition to the partnership between Mammoth and
JCI, both Neiweem and Gragg credit the success of the
integration to the extra time and effort devoted during
the planning and design stages, as well as the checkout
of the unit at Mammoth.
"The checkout of the unit at the plant was done beautifully
and I can't say enough about our ability to place the unit
in a humid climate in the middle of the summer and fully
commission the product in two working days,” Gragg said.
Neiweem added," The Mammoth equipment installed at
New Trier will positively impact the teaching and learning
process well into the 21st century, and other schools can
benefit by studying this unique project."
From a sales perspective, Gragg remains confident in his
decision to steer Neiweem away from a field-built system
and toward the penthouse solution.
“I felt that Mammoth had a more mature, established
product and I was comfortable with the personnel there,”
Gragg said. “The fact that New Trier brought its team up to
the factory also made a difference. As a group they
determined that it would be the Custom Penthouse with
evaporative condensing, Hitachi compressors and the
Mammoth Vari-Cone. Once they understood the value
associated with each of these options, it became difficult
for our competitors to meet our features.”

New Trier Custom Penthouse Features:

• Each unit contains a custom-design mechanical
equipment room (MER) with a separate heat exchanger,
pumps and piping distribution system to serve the unit’s
hot water coils. The MER’s vestibule containes an angled
corner to increase space inside the unit.
• To accommodate a helicopter lift, each unit was
fabricated in seven sections with a maximum weight of
22,000 pounds per section to meet weight constraints.
• Hitachi compressors allow for staging of loads, which is
especially critical during summer school classes that are
in session from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. throughout the summer.
• The new system allows for future expansion, which
according to Neiweem, may be necessary as year-round
schooling is becoming more prevalent.

To improve indoor air quality, outside air intake was

moved from the subbasement up to the roof of the school.
The galvanized steel risers used as duct work are housed
in architectural cladding to preserve the original features
of the school.

Creating Climates
for Learning

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