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McKinley Technical High School
McKinley Technical High School – Washington, DC
Located in Northeast Washington, DC, McKinley High school was originally constructed in the mid 1920's and has been classified as a National Historic Building. Approximately five years before the recent renovation started, the school was abandoned by the Washington, DC Department of Education and the building was boarded up.
Deciding to establish a new technical high school for the city, the McKinley building was chosen to be renovated, rather than building a new school from scratch. The renovation of the building was a complete makeover, including all new plumbing systems, mechanical equipment, mechanical piping systems, etc.
The new mechanical system installed included five new gas fired boilers, three new water chillers, and eleven new air handling units. The boilers and chillers were located in the basement of the building, with an existing pipe tunnel under the structure being used to distribute hot and cold water to the equipment. The new air handling units were located in the attic areaways. The individual classrooms were served by new fan coil units installed in the main corridor walls of each classroom.
Plumbing systems were completely changed out with new sanitary and storm drain piping. Domestic hot and cold water systems were completely changed out. Lab gases and vacuum systems were also installed serving the technical high schools new laboratory classrooms.
The project did won an award from the Washington DC Building Council for Mechanical Systems Installation. LEED features incorporated into the building design included the use of low volume plumbing fixtures.
