| Clay Center for the
Arts & Sciences Charleston, West Virginia Mechanical and Electrical Engineers Completion Date: 2003 Design Architect: Kise Straw & Kolodner, Inc. Architects: Gates, Calloway, Moore & West, P.A.
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The Clay Center for the Arts & Sciences - West Virginia, is currently under construction. When completed, the project will consist of an art museum housing both permanent and visiting collections, a performing arts center with a 1800-seat concert hall, and a science center featuring two floors of exhibit space along with a 250-seat planetarium with state of the art video projection systems.
The Clay Center combined several of the most challenging engineering criteria into the same project. ASW worked closely with the design team to maintain the rigorous acoustical requirements of the performing arts center, along with the other equally specialized environments of the museum and science center.
A common central heating cooling plant serves all elements of the project. Two 500-ton electric centrifugal chillers serve all the cooling needs of the complex. Low-pressure steam is the central heating medium. Some of the special systems provided include an engineered smoke control system serving the central lobby atrium, direct chilled water cooling of laser projectors, specialized shop exhausts for both the museum and performing arts programs. Both the planetarium and auditorium were provided with an under-floor return air system.
The Clay Center is expected to open to the public in the spring of 2003.