27th Street Oceanfront Apartments
Virginia Beach, VA

PACE Collaborative provided mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineering services for a new eighteen (18) story, 265-unit, 260,696 square foot luxury high-rise apartment building located directly on the Virginia Beach Oceanfront.  The facility includes an onsite restaurant, rooftop lounge feature, a bar, grilling area, fire pit, as well as a rooftop lounge pool, resort style fitness center, game room, and business center.

The mechanical systems utilized for the project was a variable refrigerant flow (VRF) system which included ducted fan coils in each apartment and amenity space, coupled with a bank of rooftop air cooled condensing units.  The system included a packaged rooftop dedicated outside air conditioning unit (DOAS) which delivered preconditioned, dehumidified air to each occupied space.  The DOAS unit included airside energy recovery.  Given the proximity of the building to adjacent property lines, the kitchen exhaust system supporting the ground floor restaurant could not be vented through the exterior walls without mitigating measures to meet code.  A pollution control unit had to be provided to remove all smoke, odor, and grease from the exhaust airstream so that the kitchen hoods could be vented through the exterior walls of the building.

The primary electrical service consisted of a 4000-amp, 480/277-volt, 3-phase main switchboard.  The power distribution system consisted of a 4000-amp plug-in busway riser routed though the high rise building, with 300kVA transformers and 208/120-volt distribution panels located on each floor to serve the individual living units.  The facility also included a separate 600-amp, 208/120-volt, 3-phase electrical service for a ground floor restaurant.  A 400kW diesel engine driven generator set with associated automatic transfer switches was specified to serve life safety systems.  A voice evacuation fire alarm system was also included.