Project Highlight
Cambridge, MA
RAN Fire Protection Engineering provided fire sprinkler and standpipe design for the 35 Landsdowne Street project for Millennium Pharmaceuticals. A small clean room was constructed for use in sensitive experiments. The building also contains a 150-seat auditorium, a full-service café, and staff lounges on every floor.
Size: 217,000 sqft
Boston, MA
The site of this high rise is in the location of the Boston Tea Party, which integrates the rich history of the city. The renovated building addressed both the innovations of 21st Century Boston and the historic significance of the wharf. The scope of the work involved the design of the base building fire protection systems to provide for the future tenant fit out demands. The fire protection system design included a new fire pump along with base building sprinkler/standpipe system distribution.
Size: 14 Stories | Construction Cost: $1,200,000
Pittsburg, PA
The 44-story Art Deco Gulf Tower is a landmark built in 1932 as Gulf Oil’s headquarters in downtown Pittsburgh. The tower experienced a basement fire in May 2021 due to an electrical system failure, leading to a 6-month closure for repairs.
RAN played a crucial role in this repair process, providing both code consulting and engineering services to update the fire protection systems.
The engineering services included the development of drawings and technical specifications for the replacement of the original 1932 fire pump system with a new 480-volt, 3-phase electric fire pump system. RAN evaluated the fire pump system to identify the pressure needed to protect the building. We also provided design modifications to the existing fire standpipe system and comprehensive fire sprinkler master planning for future implementation.
Size: 44 stories
Boston, MA
RAN was retained to design fire alarms for the twin 26 story high-rise buildings. The scope of services provided by RAN included design of new detection devices and notification appliances throughout the entire building. Existing fire controls and programming were modified to activate and monitor the new equipment.
Notification appliance power booster panels were installed on each of the 26 floors next to an existing fire alarm riser cabinet and each booster panel includes an addressable monitor module. The previous conventional smoke detectors and pull stations were replaced with addressable smoke detectors and pull stations.
RAN engineers developed a design that allowed for a phasing construction that would meet NFPA standards and codes at all times. This was required because the building was fully occupied with 11 different agencies and the thousands of workers.
Size: 26 Stories | Construction Cost: $1,500,000
Ithaca, NY
The Rothchild Mixed Use Development is a 13-story building located in Ithaca, NY, featuring 10 stories of residential space above a 3-story parking garage. RAN Fire Protection Engineering was contracted to provide professional fire engineering and code consulting services to the new development, focusing on the oversight and commissioning of the smoke control systems. RAN’s involvement included assisting the design team with code issues and offering support during the acceptance testing phase.
Albany, NY
RAN Fire Protection Engineering was retained by the Office of General Services to provide fire protection engineering services on the Corning Tower and the four Agency Buildings.
Services Provided:
The previous fire protection system that was installed and completed in 1973 needed to be updated. Through an evaluation process, ultrasonic testing was performed on fire protection pipes in 207 different locations to identify the condition of the pipes and to determine their life expectancy. This allowed RAN to lower construction costs by replacing only the corroded pipes.
A code analysis was performed on each building to ensure the plans are up to NFPA standards and New York State Building Code. All upgrades meet NFPA 14 and NFPA 20 code requirements.
New automatic fire pumps needed to be implemented into the design, as the Corning Tower and Agency Buildings previous fire pumps were manual and only feed to the standpipe systems, not the sprinkler systems. The new upgrades involved automatic fire pumps and automatic transfer switches.
Size: 10,000 sqft | Construction Cost: $330,000
Boston, MA
The original building’s fire protection systems needed considerable upgrading to meet the current building code requirements. RAN’s president provided lead fire protection design services. A new diesel fire pump was installed to serve one of the largest dry pipe sprinklers system in the city of Boston.
Size: 8 Stories | Construction Cost: $250,000