Seneca One Tower Cooling Instalation
June 17, 2024
The Problem
Seneca One Tower is the tallest building in downtown Buffalo, NY and has been the centerpiece of the City since its construction in 1972. It is the tallest (privately owned) office building outside of NYC. Douglas Development, the building’s owner, reached out to Modular Comfort Systems looking for a replacement solution for the eight original cooling towers. The eight cooling towers had reached their life expectancy, having been in service for over 50 years, and Douglas Development was looking to replace its equipment.
For several years, Douglas Development has been the premier developer in Buffalo and the Western NY area, so they needed to work with a company that met their quality and service standards. Modular Comfort Systems developed an early relationship with Douglas Jemal, President of Douglas Development, and his team and worked together with Trautman Associates and DV Brown & Associates to create a solution for updating the cooling towers.
The Modular Comfort Solution
Because Seneca One Tower is so tall (38 stories), the Modular Comfort team could not use a standard crane to move the cooling towers into place. Instead, Modular Comfort partnered with D.V. Brown & Associates to utilize Construction Helicopters Inc. (CHI) to install four new cooling towers on the roof. The expertise of the team, Modular Comfort Systems, Trautman Associates and DV Brown & Associates, solidified a successful project.
Four of the cooling towers had been refurbished in 2019. To replace the remaining four cooling towers, Modular Comfort outfitted Seneca One Tower with four Baltimore Aircoil Company (BAC) Counterflow Open Cooling Towers. The BAC Model PT2 cooling towers utilized BAC’s EVERTOUGH construction and provided 5,424 GPM of capacity. The BAC PT2 cooling tower is also equipped with inverter duty fan motors with VFDs and packaged motor control centers.
With this upgraded, energy efficient equipment, Modular Comfort was able to replace four of the eight cooling towers, reducing the initial capital investment and saving energy moving forward.