Our Services Include
van Zelm is a recognized leader in the planning and design of large academic, healthcare, and corporate campuses. We assist our clients through the development of significant but realistic goals for the energy use of their facilities and utility infrastructure. We incorporate innovative approaches to utility production and distribution with an in-depth understanding of the issues that drive utility usage to provide our clients with the roadmap needed to support their campus goals. Master Plans become working tools that can be used as the backbone of multi-year budgeting and project management plans.
A Complete Master Plan Includes
van Zelm designs HVAC systems and controls for all building types, working diligently to create sustainable solutions through the integration of radiant systems, natural ventilation, solar thermal, and other approaches. Our knowledge in the areas of analyzing and selecting heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems for unique and complex facilities allows us to apply the most effective mechanical solutions to each project design. We work to achieve sustainable and efficient designs that align closely with the needs of each client and project.
van Zelm creates safe, reliable and efficient electrical systems, with flexibility to sustainably support a building’s operation well into the future. Electrical engineering services are an integral part of today’s sophisticated technologies. Our electrical engineering knowledge is broad and our project experience is diverse, supporting academic, corporate, commercial, and industrial projects.
van Zelm’s plumbing engineers ensure that water conservation and sustainable design requirements are fully supported. Our designs include many projects for which rainwater, condensate and other waste water streams are harvested and treated for reuse. Our practice includes the design of gaseous, purified water, process water, process waste, bio waste and plumbing systems across multiple sectors. Our designs also include specialty plumbing for unique applications.
The application of sound fire protection principles has become a vital aspect of many new building projects, and is an ongoing operations concern for existing facilities. van Zelm’s fire protection engineering professionals address a broad range of fire safety issues with innovative, informed, and economical solutions. In addition to our longstanding capabilities in detection, suppression, and smoke evacuation system design, we utilize the latest in fire protection design technologies, coupled with a comprehensive approach to fire protection design.
van Zelm designs and implements energy and utility system solutions that offer optimum reliability, environmental considerations, and efficiency with the flexibility to meet future load requirements and fuel sources. We are experienced in the design of highly efficient central plant systems as well as integrated energy plans and alternative energy generation. Additional areas of expertise include distribution and supply alternatives, combined heat and power systems, and district energy planning. We are well-versed in sustainable design options and alternative energy solutions such as biomass boilers, solar panels, geothermal heat pumps and wind turbines.
Areas of Expertise
van Zelm provides consulting, design, and project management for a broad range of technology systems. From basic cable plant design to campus infrastructure master planning, our Technology Services Group will provide the level of quality, support and expertise that is our hallmark.
Areas of Expertise
Services
van Zelm’s Energy Services team is focused on innovative, practical, and cost-effective solutions for our clients’ energy conservation goals. Our goal is not only to increase energy savings, but to improve the comfort, indoor quality, functionality and reliability of a building for its owners and occupants. We help our clients achieve significant improvement in both building performance and conservation.
Our Energy Services Include
van Zelm Engineers has long had a reputation for providing the highest level of energy efficiency in our designs. With a client base that will own and bear the operating cost of facilities over their full life, van Zelm implements a philosophy of designing systems to provide the lowest life cycle cost. Execution of this philosophy has provided for a wealth of experience in the implementation of energy conserving technologies for both new and existing buildings.
Our firm is uniquely qualified to evaluate the practical application of energy-conserving technology on both the supply and demand sides of the campus energy equation. van Zelm Engineers’ Energy Services Group is committed to helping our clients adjust and adapt to evolving environmental circumstances to create a more economically viable and sustainable future. In addition to our Energy Services Group, we have a dedicated Power and Utility Group that specializes in central campus energy systems
Success Stories
For Futher Information
For futher information contact Tanay Bapat by email or call at 860-284-5064 ext. 333.
As building life, health, safety and energy systems become more complex and interconnected, an increasing number of owners and their representatives realize the long-term benefits of retaining a professional commissioning authority. The Commissioning Process ensures that engineering systems deliver their promised performance, and optimizes the efficiency of the construction process. van Zelm offers commissioning services in every area of our practice, both as a distinct discipline and as part of our standard engineering services. We commission our own projects as well as those designed by other consulting engineers and are well versed in LEED® commissioning projects.
Benefits of Commissioning
Areas of Expertise
Consultation Construction Services
The ever-increasing technological complexity of buildings is a challenge for project delivery teams. van Zelm offers a range of specialized services to support construction built around our core offerings of engineering design and sustainability. From data collection through the development, management, coordination and post-construction phases, our team of experienced Consultation Construction Services specialists provides seamless support.
MEP Consultation Construction Services
Specialized Skills & Services
Sustainability
Long a proponent of sustainable design, van Zelm fully supports the ever growing commitment environmental stewardship. Beyond the superficial approach to energy-conscious system applications, we incorporate a design process of integration, communication, support and trust into our work product. Staff members frequently are asked to speak to industry groups on the subject of sustainable design methodologies and outcomes. Our LEED accredited professionals maintain an active program of research and development in innovative sustainable technologies for the benefit of our staff, our projects, and our clients. We understand that we are residents on a planet with a fixed quantity of natural resources. We advocate for development of sustainable energy sources and integrated supply/demand systems to support our modern lifestyle.
Related Projects
Energy Efficiency
Our Firm has a longstanding reputation for providing the highest level of energy efficiency in our designs. With a client base that will own and bear the operating cost of facilities over their full life, van Zelm implements a philosophy of designing systems to provide the lowest life-cycle cost. Execution of this philosophy has provided for a wealth of experience in the implementation of energy conserving technologies for both new and existing buildings. Our firm is uniquely qualified to evaluate the practical application of energy conserving technology on both the supply and demand sides of the campus energy equation. In addition to our Energy Services Group, we have a dedicated Power and Utility Group that specializes in central & distributed campus energy systems. van Zelm’s energy services team is committed to helping our clients adjust and adapt to evolving environmental circumstances to create a more economically viable and sustainable future. The focus of van Zelm’s Energy Services Team is to help our clients optimize the efficiency of their energy utilization while reducing their environmental footprint ~ without affecting operations. Whether we are evaluating existing facilities to provide energy conservation strategies, or planning sustainably designed new facilities, we work to create cost-effective and sustainable solutions for our customers.
Related Projects
Resilience
When extreme weather, climate, and other hazardous events occur, the most obvious and costly impacts are to the built environment. Protecting the structures, infrastructure systems, and natural spaces within our cities, towns, and communities is a key focus of resilience efforts across the public and private sectors.
Americans’ everyday lives are shaped by and dependent upon our built environment. From the buildings where we live, work, and shop to open spaces and urban tree canopies that provides shade and ecosystem benefits to the equipment and connections of underlying systems that keep the lights on, water flowing, and internet humming, we are all dependent on complex systems that most people rarely consider.
In the face of climate change and other stresses, van Zelm designs resilience into our building systems, to ensure that they are resilient, and are resistant to hazards that can cause disruptions. This requires ongoing research and education for our staff, as well as project-specific collaboration among a broad range of stakeholders, including clients, business owners, utility providers, municipalities and local government agencies.
Related Projects
Net Zero
Net Zero energy is one of the key solutions to carbon neutrality and the elimination of fossil fuel use. Energy use in buildings is the largest single contributor to our carbon footprint approximately 40 percent, depending on the estimate.
A zero-energy building, also known as a zero-net energy building, net-zero energy building or net zero building, is a building with zero net energy consumption. That means the total amount of energy used by the building on an annual basis is roughly equal to the amount of renewable energy created on the site.
Reducing energy demand and providing renewable energy to meet remaining demand are two primary strategies employed in responding to Net-Zero goals. van Zelm has designed a number of net-zero buildings, including the new 52,000 gsf headquarters for the Massachusetts Department of Fisheries and Wildlife. This building uses state-of-the-art conservation technologies and employs an innovative direct ground source cooling system combined with heat pumps to satisfy building heating and cooling needs.
Living Building Challenge
The Living Building Challenge is currently the most rigorous benchmark of sustainability in the built environment. It is the gold standard against which all others are measured.
Living Building Challenge comprises seven performance areas: site, water, energy, health, materials, equity and beauty. These are subdivided into a total of twenty Imperatives, each of which focuses on a specific sphere of influence. The targets are rigorous and set at the highest conceivable level. Every project must meet each of the 20 strict requirements to achieve the certification.
The Living Building Challenge (LBC) is widely considered the most stringent green building standard in the world. Run by the International Living Future Institute, LBC encourages net-zero or net-positive impact on virtually everything the built environment touches. Its requirements are categorized under seven “petals”, including Place, Water, Energy, Health, Materials, Equity and Beauty. To achieve LBC certification, everything is a prerequisite. This differs from LEED, within which project teams can choose among credits.
van Zelm is currently designing a number of projects according to Living Building standards, including the new 550,000 gsf Science Complex, which is expected to achieve new performance goals in energy efficiency and the quality of its work environments. Living Buildings are regenerative buildings that connect occupants to light, air, food, nature, and community. Living Buildings are self-sufficient and remain within the resource limits of their site . . .
Living Buildings are designed and built to create a positive impact on the human and natural systems that interact with them.
Strategic Workplace
The Strategic Workplace – also known as Advanced Workplace Strategy integrates key elements of physical space design, information technology, and infrastructure to increase operational efficiency.
Organizations, work practices, and the workforce itself have all changed dramatically in the past several decades due to technological advances, demographic shifts, and continual demands for innovation in both the product and service sectors.
Implementing an effective Strategic Workplace program can offer:
- Efficiency and flexibility in the use of office, often resulting in a 20-50 percent improvement in asset performance.
- Access to integrated and mobile technologies for ability to collaborate as needed – either virtually or face to face.
- Flexible options for employees to be productive from a variety of work settings, including corporate sites, customer locations, at home, etc.
- Significant cost savings associated with the real estate portfolio, through the identification of space-reduction opportunities and evolving workspace standards
Client solutions often cover a range of options that include various combinations of conventional offices, shared/hybrid work space, hoteling, free address, satellite offices, and telecommuting/ virtual office practices to enhance employee work/life balance and achieve a more cost-efficient use of space.
Adaptation of existing building HVAC infrastructure to higher efficiency chilled beam systems can meet the demand from higher population counts while reducing the energy footprint of the facility.
Thoughtful workspace utilization can often lead to some surprising additional benefits such as a reduction in carbon footprint, increased employee satisfaction, and higher productivity.
Historic & Adaptive Reuse
Since 1930, our firm has specialized in designs for historic buildings that define their communities and provide a visual connection between the past and present. van Zelm’s technical expertise ensures that building systems complement the aesthetics of these unique historic structures.
- Retain Historic Character of a Property
- Mitigate the Physical Impact of Integrating Building Systems
- Facilitate Economics of Preservation
- Sustain Property Values
