Columbia Center
The tallest building in the state of Washington at 76 stories and 933 feet, the Columbia Center was designed by Chester L. Lindsey Architects and developed by Martin Selig Real Estate. Construction was completed in 1985. Michael R. Yantis Associates served as the project’s acoustic consultants. We worked on several other projects for Martin Selig Real Estate prior to and following the Columbia Center project.
The primary acoustic interest for this project was the lack of large HVAC equipment. Most office buildings have large rooms that house mechanical equipment. All the equipment for the Columbia Center was located above the ceilings on each floor. Several “pancake” type air handling units were located near the building’s exterior and fed the ceiling plenum with tempered outside air. Water source heat pumps were distributed around the ceiling plenum to provide conditioned air to the office spaces.
To engineer the pancake units above the ceilings, acoustic tests were conducted at the equipment manufacturer’s headquarters in Portland, Oregon. Several equipment options were tested to determine an acceptable scheme for the building.
