The historic Philadelphia Inquirer Building, which served as the Newspapers’ Administrative, printing and distribution headquarters for 83 years, lay idle until purchased by a local developer.

Devine Brothers Inc. and AEI Engineers became part of the design/build team of the D.J. Keating Company for the conversion of the 468,000-sf complex to become the City of Philadelphia Police Service Building. The renovated building will house the departments for the Police and Fire 911 systems, OIT, City Morgue, Holding cells, the Police Commissioner and detectives.

The design team will deliver a LEED Silver Project with N+1 redundant systems. There will be a four (4) pipe chilled and hot water plant, Hi-Efficiency natural gas boilers and electric chillers, A VRF heat recovery system, Specialty Laboratory Exhaust, VAV air handling units which will deliver optimal temperature air to fan powered VAV boxes equipped with ECM motors and CO2 controlled ventilation.

An integrated energy focused Johnson Controls DDC control system will provide indoor comfort as well as electric, water, gas, and oil metering . The information will be constantly updated and monitored by the City department of Energy Management. The control system will be designed and installed by our sister company Dynamic Controls Systems Inc.

This LEED renovation also developed unique solutions to maximize ceiling heights and allow for MEP above ceiling systems coordination on all floors - always a challenge when working with historic buildings. The lower floors use AHU’s to supply medium pressure air to the VAV terminal equipment. This results in substantially smaller HVAC ductwork cross sections. Upper floors utilize a Variable Volume Refrigerant system feeding multiple floors to minimize ductwork to that required for OA delivery.