Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary

Boston, MA

Equipment: Buffalo Air Handling supplied two (2) custom indoor air handling units configured with a 40,000 cfm unit stacked on a 23,000 cfm unit.
The units are 2″ double wall construction with supply fans, heating and cooling coils, pre and final filters, dampers, humidifiers, and internal piping.

Consulting Engineers: Engineered Solutions, Inc.

Mechanical Contractor: TG Gallagher

Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI) is an independent hospital specializing in the care and treatment of patients with disorders of the eyes, ears, nose, throat, head and neck. MEEI, founded in 1824 by eye surgeons John Jeffries and Edward Reynolds, offers high quality and specialty care ranging from the routine to the very complex.

One of multiple MEEI facilities throughout Greater Boston and Providence, the project building was originally built in the mid-1970s.  Many challenges were present.  We needed to increase capacity using the same footprint of the previous unit, limited access to the area, and structural cross beams.  We overcame the obstacles by stacking two units with varied air flow capacities, utilizing knockdown construction for the top unit and encapsulating the cross beams.

AHU-30 (23,00 CFM) was oversized to accommodate stacking AHU-29 (40,00 CFM) above, each having a foot print of 20’-6”L x 19’-0”W.  The width of AHU-30 necessitated  the unit be split both perpendicular and parallel to airflow resulting in 20 sections being shipped.  Once AHU-30 was reassembled in-place, AHU-29 shipped.  That unit was built at the factory, then disassembled and palletized for shipment.  A Buffalo Air Handling service technician supervised the reassembly of the top unit working with the installing contractor to coordinate the accommodation of the cross beams.