Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania

Maintaining Artifacts

The area of renovation was the Rolling Stock Hall main exhibit area which houses the train collection and encompasses 95,000 square feet. The goal of this project was to provide a new HVAC system to combat an existing moisture/condensation problem in the Rolling Stock Hall, which at the time was only marginally heated and ventilated. The upgraded exhibit area environment also greatly enhances the visitor’s museum experience. Our team took extra care—providing dust partitions and implementing thorough construction sequencing—to keep existing artifacts, trains, and displays at their current location, while keeping the museum in operation during construction.

Museum Quality Environment

To create the “museum quality” environment, the design included an energy efficient closed ground coupled geothermal water loop serving 22 water source geothermal heat pumps and two water source geothermal make-up air units. The make-up air units provide the code required ventilation air in the exhibit hall. Interior HVAC design work included integrating the geothermal distribution piping with the existing structure and architecture of the building and design of new HVAC platforms to mount the air conditioning and heating (heat pump) units above the floor. Mounting the heat pumps on platforms was done to save as much of the existing floor area for exhibits as possible. The upgrades to the HVAC system allowed Rolling Stock Hall to be air-conditioned and heated.

Structural and Civil Work

Century provided the structural engineering for the platforms for the heat pumps. The structural modifications provided for access to the platforms in some areas by adding catwalks as necessary for maintenance of the HVAC systems. To compliment the HVAC modifications, other components of the building envelope were upgraded. These upgrades included adding insulation on the exterior walls and roof, replacement of existing skylights with more insulated type units, removal of unneeded skylights, and installation of vapor barriers to limit movement of moisture through the envelope. Civil engineering services included erosion and sedimentation controls to maintain drainage and runoff compliance with the state and local requirements as well as the reworking and replacement of the parking lot after the geothermal wells and piping pits were installed.