IMEG provided plumbing, mechanical, electrical design and construction administration for the 175,000-sf ($80M total cost and $20M mechanical and electrical cost) renovation and major expansion of the of the Liberty Memorial, which is currently designated as the National World War I Museum, a US Historic Landmark, and is listed on the US National Register of Historic Places.

The design included a new central mechanical and electrical physical plant, restoration of the two original museums, (Exhibit Hall and Memory Hall), tower and deck, and expansion. The expansion includes a large artifact and multi-media museum, two theaters, research center, library, conservation space, archival storage, museum store, restaurant and administrative office and public event space.

Challenges included design requirements to provide environmental conditions to protect museum artifacts, and to provide a quiet (no mechanical/electrical noise) experience for the visitor while remaining energy efficient and within budget.

The space is below the WWI monument base, Wylie Gallery, is an expansion from the existing museum gallery and is utilized for temporary exhibits from all over the world. IMEG installed a new dedicated AHU to include MERV 8 prefilters, Dynamic V8 polarized dielectric filter media (equivalent to MERV 15), carbon and potassium permanganate filters, CO2 min. OA override for ventilation control, fan wall system for N+1 redundancy, steam humidification, chilled water coil with dehumidification override, UV lighting downstream of the cooling coil, and SCR electric reheat. The unit also has a pressurization control to maintain the gallery pressure +0.02” WG, and has a particulate monitoring sensor to monitor effectiveness of the filtration systems. The space setpoint is 70°F with 45% RH with min. drift per NARA museum guidelines.

The gallery is also isolated from the roof/deck above with an internal roofing system above the ceiling to drain away any potential leakage from the deck above and further protect the exhibits in the gallery.

The archival storage and collections space has a similar unit to Wylie Gallery but is set to maintain a lower space temperature 65°F with minimal drift per the same NARA museum guidelines.

Challenges of the project included design requirements to provide environmental conditions to protect museum artifacts, and to provide a quiet (no mechanical/electrical noise) experience for the visitor while remaining energy efficient and within budget.