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case study
Historic NYC Building Finds HVAC Solution
Built in the 1880s as a meatpacking
plant, the triangular building had a long,
colorful history before being purchased
by the B.R. Guest Company, New York,
in 2003 for the site of their newest
Italian restaurant. Since opening the
Coconut Grill in 1987 on Manhattan’s
Upper East Side, B.R. Guest expanded
to include 14 distinct dining locations
in New York City including Isabella’s,
Atlantic Grill, Ruby Foo’s Times Square,
Blue Fin and Dos Caminos SoHo. B.R.
Guest Company also owns Fiamma
Osteria Trattoria, Las Vegas, and
Fiamma Trattoria, Scottsdale, Ariz.
Project History
In fall 2003, B.R. Guest’s in-house
architect Hall Hanson and Stanley
Berger, president, Arista Air
Conditioning Corporation, Long
Island City, N.Y., met to discuss the
Vento Trattoria project. For the past 12
years, Arista had been providing B.R.
Guest restaurants with air-conditioning
installation and service. Over lunch,
Hall Hanson, Stanley Berger and
Mechanical Engineer Larry Green, Jack
Green Associates, New York, poured
over the blueprints of 675 Hudson
Street, vacant for many years and in
great need of total reconstruction. With
a tough, unique, triangular foot print,
difficult 2-foot-thick walls, absolutely
no space for mechanical equipment and
piping over three stories, and no room
on the roof for the outdoor compressor
units, this trio was faced with tough,
challenging installation design demands.
Historic District Limits: One
Design Solution in the World
Because the Vento building was in a
New York historic district with exacting
sight and zoning restrictions, and
because of Hanson’s interior design
demands for multiple cooling and
heating zones, Berger knew that there
was only one cooling and heating
solution in the world that would meet
all these difficult requirements—
Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF)
zoning systems from Mitsubishi Electric
Cooling and Heating Solutions,
Suwanee, Ga. The first simultaneous
cooling and heating modular system
in the U.S., the Variable Refrigerant
Flow (VRF) zoning system meant that
Hanson could provide each individual
zone on three levels with its own
personalized comfort system.
Project Name
Vento Trattoria Restaurant
Project Location
675 Hudson Street,
Greenwich Village, New
York City, N.Y.
Completion Date
January 2004
The Team
Building Lessee
B.R. Guest, Inc.,
New York City, N.Y.
HVAC Contractor
Arista Air Conditioning
Corporation, Long Island
City, N.Y.
HVAC Distributor
Luce, Schwab & Kase,
Inc., Fairfield, N.J.
Vento Trattoria’s Innovative
Solution: 1880s Meet 2000s
Berger and Green got to work on the
design and specifications in October
2003. For the triangular building,
Berger designed in all the piping, coil
units and wiring. The largest challenge
was how to camouflage the outdoor
units to comply with the zoning limits.
He specified seven 8-ton PURY100TMU compressor units—each
providing 95,500 Btu/h of cooling
September 2010
case study
and 107,500 Btu/h of heating— to be
installed on the steel plate of a large
outdoor billboard occupying the entire
roof. He then ran the refrigerant piping
and wiring down an old chimney flue
reaching all floors. For the interior
rooms, Berger specified 10 PKFY
20,000 Btu/h wall-mounted airhandling units, nine PLFY-NAMU
20,000 Btu/h ceiling-recessed 4-way
cassette units, and 13 ceiling-concealed
ducted type PDFY-NMU 32,000 Btu/h
air-handling units. A key component to
the installation was the BC Controller
that controls refrigerant flow to the
indoor units and, used in unison with
the outdoor compressors, provides
simultaneous cooling and heating.
Trouble-free System Provides Heat
Until the Grand Opening
“We finished the VRF zoning
installation in January 2004 at the
height of the reconstruction effort,”
Berger said. “It was bitter cold in
Greenwich Village and plywood sheets
still covered the windows of the old
meatpacking plant. Known more for
its tremendous cooling capabilities,
everyone was amazed when we fired up
the heat pumps and produced enough
heat for the subcontractors to still
their propane tanks and install over
$4 million worth of new windows,
doors, interior furnishings, flooring and
accessories. Vento’s interior spaces were
entirely heated by our VRF zoning system
until the grand opening in April 2004.”
Mitsubishi Electric Cooling and
Heating Solutions Mid-Atlantic
Regional Manager, Bob Manning,
Highlands, N.J. said, “The Vento
installation was absolutely ingenious
and was one of the best start-ups I have
ever seen. Since the grand opening, the
system has been running trouble-free.”
Mitsubishi Electric Equipment Installed
(7) PURY-100TMU-A R2-Series Outdoor Units
(10) PKFY Btu/h Wall-mounted Air-Handlers
(9) PLFY-NAMU Ceiling-recessed Cassette Air Handlers
(13) PDFY-NMU-A Ceiling-concealed Air Handlers
(1) CMB-108NUF Branch Circuit (BC) Controller
Lacking a solution to cool and heat a unique triangular building, a former meat packing plant, the B.R. Guest Company used Mitsubishi Electric to meet their needs and
provide restaurant guests with a comfortable dining environment.