Friday 13 September 2013 Tour under the Jerusalem Center, School kit assembly

The building was designed and built so the mechanical equipment could be in the crawl space.  There is enough space for a person to stand in most places. Many people thought this was wasted space, but it has proven to be a good design. The building does not sit on the ground.  There are 400 concrete pillars resting on bedrock upon which the building was built. The Jerusalem Center has about 125,000 square feet of space. Only a builder or HVAC guy will like these pictures.

A metal tray to hold the wire that runs throughout the building. 

 The building is heated and cooled using heat pumps, boilers, and chillers. Some of the duct seemed well built, and I saw some poor plug-in fittings as well.

 In the far end is a water holding tank.  The Center fills this tank to have a supply of water in case the municipal supply is cut off temporarily. Above, to the right is a walkway for servicing some of the heat pump units that serve the living quarters.

 Tarek, Jerusalem Center Safety Director, took us on the tour.  The under building area is off-limits to students.  Some of the students would sneak a peak over the years, so they decided to give tours. Students sign their names on the walls, pipes, and ducts in this area. If you look closely, you can see writing on the pillar and ducts.

 These are pillars that rest on bedrock and support the building.

 It seemed like some of the ducts were pretty small for the distance they ran.

 More ducts 

 The water from the water feature on the 7th floor drops into this holding tank, where it is recirculated into the water feature.

The students did their first school kit assembly project.  We built 885 kits in a little over an hour.  They played music and had a great time. They look for things to do, they don't wait to be told.  I think this is a great group. They cleaned up afterwards and a few stayed to dance.