ASHRAE 90414

Abstract

<strong>Introduction</strong> <br>Tall commercial office buildings have existed for more than 100 years. While their origin occurred in the United States in the closing years of the 19th century, they are a design concept that today finds application in every corner of the globe. The tall commercial office building only became possible through the invention of the elevator safety braking system by Elisha Graves Otis in 1853. The earliest examples of the tall building phenomenon can be found in New York City and Chicago. It was the concentration of economic activities, the availability of the developed infrastructure that would support business enterprises, and the limited building sites in the centralized business areas of these cities that originally gave rise to tall office buildings. Because of the growth in population and the expansion of the economy in multiple cities, the tall commercial office building exists today in every city in the world. <br>The design of any tall building is the result of the collaborative effort of owners, architects, structural engineers, mechanical and electrical engineers, and other specialized engineers and consultants. This design guide is focused on the efforts of the designers of the heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems, but it also addresses the importance of the design team and their collective efforts and concerns that are the critical elements in determining the ultimate solutions to the project needs. <br>Every building is a product of its location, the time during which the building is designed and erected, and the specific client for whom the building is being constructed. A building is constructed of multiple commercially available products, but in its completed state, there may well be differences in how these products are assembled. Accordingly, every building will usually differ in many ways from other buildings regardless of apparent similarities. <br>This guide addresses HVAC design issues for tall commercial office buildings, but the matters discussed and the recommendations and comments that are developed, with various modifications, frequently can be applied to other project types within the built environment. This is particularly true of matters discussed in the "General Overview" section of this chapter. It is necessary to cover these matters, however, in order to lay the groundwork for matters discussed subsequently in this design guide, many of which are more exclusively applicable to the tall commercial office building.