537 W 59th Street Women's Shelter

EP provides full MEP design services for the new construction homeless shelter located at 537 West 59th Street. The development consists of a 9-story, 50,000 square foot, R-1 occupancy building featuring 200 beds for single women in dorm-style rooms, a commercial kitchen and cafeteria, common laundry facilities, a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) clinic open to the general public, an on-site library, and a landscaped roof terrace with planting gardens.

Working alongside Dattner Architects, with Hudson Companies and Project Renewal as developers, EP Engineering designed mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems to serve a complex, mixed-use building program while meeting the life safety, code, and sustainability requirements of a supportive housing facility targeting LEED Gold certification.

Location

537 West 59th Street

Project Size

9-Story
5,000 sf

Engineering challenges

  • Designing MEP systems to serve the diverse and technically demanding mix of program spaces throughout the building, including a commercial kitchen, cafeteria, common laundry rooms on multiple floors, and a DOH clinic, within tight spatial constraints.
  • Design of smoke control and pressurization systems required for R-1 occupancy, including smokeproof elevator lobbies and stairwell pressurization compliant with NYC Building Code.
  • Coordinating high-performance MEP systems across a complex, mixed-use building program to satisfy the energy and sustainability requirements of LEED Gold certification.

Engineering outcomes

  • Provided dedicated stairwell and hoistway pressurization systems that fully satisfy the R-1 occupancy smoke control and smokeproof elevator lobby requirements.
  • Careful overhead coordination minimized crossing systems throughout, maximizing usable ceiling heights across residential, clinical, and amenity floors.
  • Specification of high-efficiency VRF heat recovery systems and energy recovery ventilators contributed to the building’s LEED Gold certification by significantly reducing energy consumption across the building’s varied program spaces.

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