Expertise and Care: Tri-Tech Engineering Embodies 4-H Founder's Mission for Building Renovation and Modernization

In January 1902, a rural schoolteacher met with local students in downtown Springfield, Ohio. The teacher, A. B. Graham, recognized that students wrestled to tend to their studies as they navigated the obligations of rural living with their families. Instead of pitting schoolwork against their commitments at home (or vice versa), A. B. Graham incorporated the realities of rural living—farming, caring for livestock, gardening, etc.—into a curriculum to prepare students for life beyond school. He envisioned students who practiced “learning by doing,” cultivating them with both expertise in and care for their communities. And so, on January 15, 1902, A. B. Graham began the first boys and girls agricultural club—what we today call 4-H.

Today, a plaque reminds passers-by of the historical significance of building, which now boasts Graham’s name, the A. B. Graham building, where 4-H began. Its rich history and aesthetic originality make it a treasured staple of the downtown Springfield area.

The A. B. Graham building houses many city and county offices and courtrooms. After years of maxing out the building’s capacity and capabilities, Clark County leadership knew the building needed improvements if it were to continue to serve a critical and strategic function in the city of Springfield. Clark County sought to elevate the building’s functionality and to improve its utility provisions—while preserving its important historical aesthetic—through a significant renovation-and-modernization project. And with their own expertise and care, Tri-Tech Engineering’s team sought to protect the owner’s commitments to the building’s image while ensuring the building could enjoy a successful renovation.

The project’s architect, Oregon Group Architects, brought on Tri-Tech to evaluate the building and provide design elements for structural engineering (SE) and plumbing, electrical, and mechanical engineering (MEP). To ensure the safety of Clark County personnel and to allow for a timely construction, Tri-Tech designed a temporary location that served the various offices’ needs during the extensive renovation project.

Tri-Tech’s in-house SE team conducted precise analysis and supplied input into the building’s updates, despite the limited number of existing structural drawings available. This lack of drawings, along with the building’s age, meant that Tri-Tech’s SE team would need to exercise exceptional expertise and care with a major feature of the project: modernizing the existing building elevator and elevator shaft to make it ADA compliant.

Assisting the architect, Tri-Tech’s SE team determined in its analysis that the building drawings didn’t accurately represent the building’s structural engineering features, including how the floors were framed and constructed. It was important to the SE team to avoid unnecessary and costly demolition, so they developed a conservative design for the updated elevator and elevator shaft that ensured the safety of the surrounding floors. The outdated, limited drawings also meant that Tri-Tech’s SE team had to conduct extensive analysis on the elevator pit, backfilling information about the pit and floor slab into any of their potential redesigns. Despite the constraints related to the lack of drawings, Tri-Tech developed a redesign of the elevator pit and floor slab without requiring additional time from the project and construction timeline.

Tri-Tech’s MEP team provided engineering design to replace the building plumbing, mechanical, and electrical infrastructure, including the installing—and finessing—of a new variable refrigerant flow (VRF) HVAC system. Before Tri-Tech’s HVAC and mechanical designs, the building’s heat was supplied through steam radiators and its cooling by window air-conditioning units. This meant that much of the heat furnished t to the lower floors by the radiators during colder temps would invariably overwhelm the upper floors, forcing personnel in the above floors to use their window units to combat the rising hot air while leaving the lower floors colder. This spelled out major inefficiencies and utility costs for the building.

Tri-Tech’s MEP team wanted to install an HVAC system that utilized air, rather than steam, to move heat throughout building (which would require more space than a steam system) and would still maintain individualized, zoned temperature control throughout the building. Tri-Tech also needed to develop a design for the HVAC ductwork and subsequent equipment to fit in the narrow space between the ceiling design chosen to maintain the building’s aesthetic and the deck above it (approx. one foot of space). This led the MEP team to choose a VRF system, which would help them overcome the building’s limitations. As part of its decision-making process for an HVAC system, Tri-Tech’s team conducted extensive analysis on the area’s previous temperatures and weather patterns, looking specifically at the area’s history of extreme temperatures, ensuring the VRF system was the best choice to maintain the space’s historical image, to overcome the constraint of space, and to improve the building’s overall heating-and-cooling functionality. 

Tri-Tech’s electrical designs for the building included coordinating new locations for electrical wiring and devices along existing brass rails, marble on the wall, and the building’s custom woodwork. And Tri-Tech identified limitations in the amperage rating and conductors coming into the building. Tri-Tech’s team worked diligently to improve this and to help the owner save money by examining the electrical loads of the building to facilitate the use of existing electrical service conductors.

Tri-Tech’s in-house SE and MEP teams offered many advantages throughout a project, such as the reliability to maintain owner commitments while adjusting to various constraints. Another is the efficiency of communication during construction, keeping projects from costly downtime. For instance, during construction, a question arose as to whether lintels were needed to support ductwork penetrations through a nonbearing wall. A Tri-Tech structural engineer was available to provide consultation, keeping the contractor from searching for the answer from another structural-engineering firm. Tri-Tech also supplied construction administration during the renovation.

Tri-Tech offered the architect and owner both structural-engineering and MEP expertise and care that ensure this important building would better serve those inside of it, and that it could continue to offer its echo of historical precedence throughout Ohio and the U.S.—something A. B. Graham himself would be proud of.