Location: Indianapolis, IN
Client: Indianapolis Zoo
Architect: Browning Day Mullins Dierdorf, Indianapolis, IN
Completion: 2014
Recognition: 2014 Monumental Affair – Honor Award in Engineering
This exhibit has received national attention as an unmatched experience designed to stimulate physical, social, and intellectual abilities of the great apes. Providing MEP design, our charge was designing environmental systems to maintain consistent conditions regardless of the season. The HVAC system is based on a geothermal condenser water loop that taps the earth’s natural consistent temperature. The indoor dayroom for the orangutans is cooled and ventilated from a dedicated air handling unit; cooling is from a coil that uses direct well water; heating is accomplished by in-floor radiant heating. Comfortable orangutans are happy orangutans.