UK’s College of Pharmacy is ranked 5th in the nation and its 286,000-square-foot BioPharm complex facility was created to provide top researchers, scientific minds and students with 21st-century tools. The research conducted in this building has an impact on the future of medicine and changes lives.
The first three floors of the building were completed in January 2010 and opened to pharmacy students and faculty. Although the fourth and fifth floors were slated to house research labs, they had not yet been fitted out. TP Mechanical took on the challenge of completing the mechanical service for these two additional floors.
The project required stainless steel duct work and a piping system that could withstand and transfer chemicals safely. TP Mechanical also devised a way to construct and install these systems while the first three floors of the building remained occupied by students and faculty.
TP Mechanical leveraged extensive knowledge of specialty piping products and prefabrication capabilities to create a custom chemical piping system using Orion’s thermoplastic polyvinylidene flouride (PVDF) material. PVDF is a thermoplastic developed for superior resistance to many solvents, acids, bases and halogens. It is the first plastic piping that is certified to meet ASTM E-84 and UL 723 codes for flame spread and smoke generation. Additionally, it maintains its strength from -40°F to 285°F.
Our in-house prefabrication team prepared materials and our team delivered them to the upper floors using buck hoists. This allowed us to construct and install the mechanical systems while students and faculty safely occupied the building below. Classes and other activities operated normally throughout construction. This project took one full year to complete, without interruption of the flow of campus life.
Our extensive experience with academic institutions in Ohio and Kentucky has helped us to become a leader in mechanical contracting for a wide variety of projects – hospitals, dormitories, stadiums and research facilities.
